Unfortunately, issues around Down Syndrome are intimately connected with Life Issues because of the modern ability to seek and destroy “imperfect” children inside the womb.  The availability of both prenatal genetic testing and legal abortion has led to the destruction of thousands and thousands of unborn children with Down Syndrome. Here are some recent facts about the abortion of Down syndrome babies: 

1.      In Massachusetts,  Down syndrome occurs more often than any other birth defect.

2.      Despite developmental delays, individuals with Down syndrome achieve success: many elementary-school-age students attend regular school; high school students graduate with degrees and go on to graduate school; some become celebrities like actors Chris Burke and Tommy Jessup, rapper Laz-D, and Ironman tri-athelete Chris Nikic.

3.      88% of children born with Down syndrome reach age 20; many live into their sixties and seventies.

4.      In Massachusetts, 49% of babies, diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome, are aborted.

5.      The abortion rate for the next most prevalent birth defect – cardiovascular - is less than 1%.

6.      Down syndrome is often referred to as “the canary in the coal mine” for selective reproduction. To reverse the trend of discrimination against the unborn diagnosed with Down syndrome, MCFL filed H.2409, a bill that seeks to steer us off the path of selective reproduction. It does not ban any abortion. It merely prohibits an abortion provider, who knows a pregnant woman is seeking an abortion, based solely on a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, from performing the abortion. She is free to seek an abortion from another provider.

7.      Abortion access is available and convenient. Over 87% of women in Massachusetts live in a county with a clinic that provides abortions. The median distance to travel to an abortion provider in Massachusetts is 9.7 miles.