President Joe Biden’s abortion-loving acolytes gave a standing ovation to Texas mom Kate Cox during his State of the Union last week. Guests of honor at the annual address tend to be Americans of courage or contribution, such as military heroes, cultural trailblazers, or victims of tragedies. But Cox is just a 31-year-old Texan who sued her state over its abortion laws, traveled to a different state, and killed her unborn baby for the crime of being imperfect. Stunning and brave.
Cox’s poor child had received a prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 18, which is associated with growth obstacles and developmental delays. But while some babies with this diagnosis die in utero or within the weeks or months after birth, others thrive for years, even into their teens and twenties.
Cox’s child could have been one of these success stories, but we’ll never know.
Sadly, as prenatal testing advanced in the years following Roe v. Wade, the number of elective abortions in response to fetal anomalies rose. Parents in the United States kill an alarming percentage of preborn babies diagnosed — possibly incorrectly — with Down syndrome, Trisomy 18, spina bifida, cystic fibrosis, and many other conditions. At best, it’s euthanasia. At worst, it’s eugenics.
Medical “advice” seems to be a major contributing factor to the rates of abortion after adverse diagnoses. The vast majority of OB-GYNs and other health care professionals automatically prescribe abortion for fetal anomalies, and they urge it repeatedly. A new study from the Family Research Council (FRC) bears this out.
Perinatal Hospice
The study also shows a better path — one that honors the dignity of both the mother and child. It’s called perinatal hospice, or perinatal palliative care, and it seeks care and comfort for parents and their children from the moment of diagnosis through delivery and eventual death. It provides everything from emotional support and counseling to planning for birth and natural death, funerals and burial plans, prayer, support groups, pictures or mementos, and sometimes sonograms or memorial services.
But research shows most women don’t know about it — and those who do know didn’t hear about it from their doctors.
Last year, FRC surveyed 82 women who went through perinatal hospice — and learned a lot about the demographics who most often receive that type of care. The vast majority of recipients were married (almost 94 percent), white (75 percent), religious (75 percent), and college-educated with above-average incomes. This is unsurprising in light of the women Planned Parenthood targets. In keeping with its racist, eugenic roots, the abortion giant sadly centers its facilities in low-income and minority neighborhoods, where single parenthood is common.
That’s one reason it’s important to get the word out about perinatal hospice. Women aren’t alone — they just don’t know it. Fewer than 1 in 5 of the surveyed women received perinatal hospice information from their OB-GYN after an adverse prenatal diagnosis. According to the FRC survey:
Over 55 percent of the women received a recommendation of abortion by at least one of her doctors. Sadly, a majority of women who were advised to obtain an abortion reported that they received this advice on multiple occasions from doctors or healthcare professionals. Only 13 percent of women were encouraged by their first OBGYN to carry their pregnancy to term. Similarly, only 12 percent who sought advice from a high-risk pregnancy specialist were advised to carry their pregnancy to term.
While FRC also noted that only 25 percent of the women said their insurance covered the special care, PerinatalHospice.org, a top resource for this type of palliative care, says perinatal hospice is inexpensive. It reports that at least one insurance company covers it specifically, but most aspects of perinatal hospice work into what parents are already paying for delivery, birth planning, prenatal, and newborn care.
This care is effective. Most women surveyed were pleased with their perinatal help. “Over 83 percent felt that perinatal hospice was very supportive emotionally,” FRC concluded. “Additionally, 67 percent found that perinatal hospice services were very helpful in the grieving process.”
After carrying babies with a scary prenatal diagnosis to term, many of the women understandably reported having a “better understanding” of why some expectant mothers would consider abortion under those circumstances. But it’s important to note that while a majority of the women surveyed already considered themselves “very pro-life,” 36 percent of respondents said carrying their babies to term made them more pro-life.
A Pro-Woman Option
Women who went through perinatal hospice found it helpful, so what? You can almost hear the pro-abortion response. According to abortion advocates, killing the diagnosed child is still the best thing for the mother, who then isn’t forced to endure drawn-out grief, and for the child, who would suffer if he were allowed to live through natural death.
But research refutes these lies. A longitudinal study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology showed that four months after aborting a baby because of a fetal anomaly, almost half of women (46 percent) “showed pathological levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms” — which continued 16 months post-abortion in more than 20 of the women.
One research article called abortion for prenatal abnormalities a “traumatic event” that “entails the risk of severe and complicated grieving.” And a study in Obstetrics and Gynecology found, “Women who terminate pregnancies for fetal anomalies experience grief as intense as those who experience spontaneous perinatal loss.”
The Perinatal Hospice website documents even more research showing the same and concludes that abortion “is not a shortcut through grief.” On the other hand, studies show that almost all women (97.5 percent) who decide to carry their babies to term do not regret that choice, and while they experience much of the same grief over the loss of their children, they avoid the intense guilt.
As for the babies, parents and health care experts familiar with perinatal palliative care describe the newborns as comfortable and “peaceful.” In hospice situations, medical care can either be administered if it would relieve pain or avoided if it would cause unnecessary discomfort, such as tests or vaccinations.
Life-or-Death Knowledge
No expecting parents want the news that their child is a medical anomaly. It’s scary.
Scarier, however, is the way abortion advocates and hiveminded OB-GYNs exploit this fear. They throw around unscientific phrases such as “incompatible with life,” emotionally blackmailing already distraught parents with the lie that abortion is the safest and most compassionate option.
It’s not, and no medical professional can know for sure what a child’s lifespan will be unless he snuffs it out. As the Perinatal Hospice website notes, “the term ‘lethal’ can be a subjective judgment about quality of life and can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
It’s not up to doctors to speculate about what another person’s quality of life will be before she even takes her first breath, or to withhold good medical options from parents. As the FRC study’s authors wrote in a Tuesday op-ed, “The lives of those with disabilities, no matter how long or how short, are just as valuable as every other person’s life. Americans must recognize this.”
So it’s time to tell women — and the OB-GYNs who don’t know — that there’s a better way. To stop assuming abortion is a solution. To come alongside young, poor, scared moms with hope and comfort instead of erecting abortion mills in their minority neighborhoods. And to stop applauding abortion seekers as brave and instead laud the parents who choose truly compassionate care.
