I felt as if I was liked and respected for my work and for myself, even with everyone knowing about my disabilities: I had “ come out” with disability. I had a good job, I had friends, I was married. I am deaf, I have TBI and also C-PTSD (the latter which has manifested mostly as I have gotten older, with the layering of PTSD – it looks a lot like bi-polar disorder).īy the time I became pregnant with my daughter, I had reached a good place. I had been fighting disability discrimination, ableism and prejudice for most of my life in some form or another. The Struggle of Choosing: Abortion Because of Down Syndrome? There are frightening levels of abuse occurring with people with all disabilities, but most of all with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Intellectual and developmental disabilities are, after all, on the bottom rung of the disability ladder. I was terrified of bringing someone else into the world who would face something similar – but potentially far worse than me. I have written before about this, but having grown up with disabilities and facing all the ableism and abuse in my life has not been easy.
I was Leaning Toward Aborting My Daughter with Down Syndrome The conversation went on, with me asking for more information, the doctor having nothing in the way of concrete, real information, only endless opinions that pointed to his ableism, prejudice, and ignorance. I asked to meet a family with a child with Down syndrome, or to go to some kind of Down syndrome group, “We don’t do that, ” he said.īut, he said, “you really should think about the burden you will placing on your son by having a Down syndrome child.” I asked for specific information related to this “poor quality of life”, a brochure, a pamphlet on Down syndrome? Something?! “We don’t have that, ” he said. The specialist urged us to abort our child, telling us how poor her quality of life would be, coming with Down syndrome. When we said we needed to think about it, he referred us to the perinatal specialist. To be more clear, after he told us that she was going to come with Down syndrome, he asked us when we would like to schedule the termination. I was advised by the doctor to abort my daughter with Down syndrome.
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