People with Down Syndrome Speak Out Against Abortion
People with Down syndrome are people too. They're just as deserving of life as people without Down syndrome. Not eradicated from a country's populace ala Iceland. Listen to John F. Stephens defend his own life to the UN. It's touching:
Stephens began by easing tensions with a joke about his extra chromosomes giving him a “little bit uncommon” appearance — “in my case, uncommonly handsome.” From there, he stated simply that he was an individual who should be seen “as a human being, not a birth defect.” People like him, he said, need not be “eradicated” or “cured” but rather loved, valued, educated, and sometimes helped.”
I'm usually one to shy away from open displays of emotion. I typically find people who parade their emotional sob stories to be manipulative, campaigning for a specific agenda. Like the Parkland activists boo-hooing while demanding we surrender our Second Amendment rights.
This is different. John Stephens is campaigning for his own life. People like him are being sucked out of their mothers' wombs for the crime of not being "perfect." For having an extra chromosome. For possibly putting an extra burden on parents and society.
Charlotte Fien joined him:
“A mother’s womb is the most dangerous place for babies with Down syndrome,” she said. “As long as people with Down syndrome are kept out of mainstream society, we will be feared, not accepted, and aborted into extinction.”“The UN is against abortions that target female babies because it’s harmful towards women,” Fien pointed out. “So why are they OK with wiping out my future community?”
No human being is perfect to begin with. Just because a child has an extra chromosome doesn't mean their life lacks value. We need more people like John and Charolette giving witness to the beauty of people with Down syndrome.
Down syndrome lives matter.
