"Therapeutic abortion"

I watched an episode of Law & Order last night with a couple who had aborted their child after receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome - only to find out that the baby was perfectly healthy after the fact. This got me wondering about how many people actually abort their children when given diagnoses like this. Being that we knew about Lucas' brain malformations midway through the pregnancy, we were made aware of our termination opportunity by two doctors that we met with. And if the midwest is the moral compass of the US like some people say, then I guess I shouldn't be surprised to know how rampant this behavior is in the rest of the country.

I found a very interesting article in the Washington Post that goes into detail about the reality of raising a child with a disability in California. The author, whose daughter has Down syndrome, describes an encounter with the director of an Ivy League ethics program who "believes that prospective parents have a moral obligation to undergo prenatal testing and to terminate their pregnancy to avoid bringing forth a child with a disability, because it was immoral to subject a child to the kind of suffering he or she would have to endure." According to the article, studies estimate that 80-90% of pregnancies with prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome are aborted.

Reading this horrifies me, but I also find myself strangely comforted. Because if turning to abortion is becoming the new standard in keeping a perfect family, then I'm glad that God gave Lucas to us - and that we understand that God has a great purpose for his life.