Would you abort a child with Down Syndrome?

Question

I read a post on reddit about a pregnant woman who found out her baby had Down Syndrome. She ultimately decided to abort the pregnancy. What would you do?
I’m pregnant now at 5-6 weeks and I just feel gutted at the thought of it all.

Answer

I have a good friend with a child who has Downs Syndrome. When they got the diagnosis, they called one of their friends who also has a Downs Syndrome child. The first thing their friend said was, “You have hit the jackpot.” And years later, my friend says they were totally right. Their daughter is the most present, joyful person they know. Of course, it comes with challenges, like every parent-child relationship - challenges other parents don’t have, but not ones that make life suffering for them or for their child. Downs Syndrome people are statistically the happiest group of people in the world (look it up! I mean that literally!).
So if anyone is reading this and thinks it would be too hard to have a child with Downs Syndrome, let me encourage you - it probably doesn’t match our vision of what we hope for for our child and for ourselves. But those who have worked through that disappointment and loss of a version of their dream and come out the other side with acceptance say they find something precious! That’s what I would cling to if this happened to me.

Answer

I meant to click no!! That baby deserves to live! Have you met someone with downs? They’re so happy, fun, and SMART!! They have every right to life.

Answer

I personally wouldn’t be able to handle a child with special needs. I’ve never been in that situation, so I ultimately don’t know what I would do. I just know I most likely wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Answer

The doctors told my mom that my brother had down syndrome and tried persuading her to abort. My brother is 24 now and perfectly annoyingly normal.

Answer

I’ve heard multiple stories of Dr’s telling moms their baby has downs or is likely to have downs. Then the Dr ended up being wrong. Happened to my MIL with my husbands brother. They wanted her to abort him. He didn’t have downs. But even if he did he’d still be worthy of life!

Answer

It's a personal decision. while I wouldn't personally I definitely would be packing my butt and moving closer to our family who currently lives 24 hours away because I know I would need all the support in the world and that would be a huge heartache for me and I don't judge anyone based on their decisions for something like that you have to do what's best for you and your family.

Answer

I’ll be 36 right at 11 weeks. We are not doing any of the genetic testing with our ten week labs. I have anxiety so we don’t want to worry about potential futures! We’ll handle what comes, when it officially comes. Sometimes all indications are wrong.

Answer

I would love that baby no matter what

Answer

I read that post tonight and there were so many really interesting perspectives. I think this is one of those things that is hard to say what you would really do being in the situation. My heart really felt for her, a very difficult thing to be faced with.

Answer

No I wouldn’t. With our second, our screening came back high risk for Down syndrome. We went to see a high risk doctor. She did a scan, and offered an amniocentesis. However we declined the amniocentesis because we knew we’d keep him either way.

Would you abort a child with Down Syndrome?

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