One mother's choice to abort - Terrible!!

The below article was published on the front page of Staten Island Advance. This article is totally disgusting and sick! Abortion is horrible for both children with special needs and regular children.

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How disgusting is that?!?!!!! The article states,

"She said her action was selflessly motivated, aimed at preserving the quality of life for her living and non-living children. "

Her action was anything BUT "selflessly motivated"! If she really was "selflessly motivated" she would have accepted that baby and be willing to lay down her life for her child. A letter to the editor should be written.

It also goes onto to state,

""Who would have helped me find a good institution? What about the mom who doesn't have a lot of help? What happens to those kids?" "

All she would have had to do was put it up for adoption! But, she could care less for the life of her child (IMO) and decided to kill it.

------- The news article: ---
One mother's choice to abort

Informed that her child would be disabled, she makes a decision she doesn't regret
Sunday, May 20, 2007

By LISA SCHNEIDER STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Every day, Rita of Tottenville thinks about the son she decided not to have.
Yet she has no regrets about the decision she made: On Nov. 12, 2003, she terminated her 19-week pregnancy in a procedure that many would consider a partial birth abortion.

"I never felt the baby," said Rita, a 36-year-old mother of four who considers herself "very Catholic." "It had no movement. He was sick."
Rita underwent a procedure called dilation and extraction after learning that her baby would have Down syndrome.
"I agonized over it," she said. But ultimately, she said, she made the best decision she could for her family. At the time, Rita had two children, ages 6 and 3, and she worried about not being able to take care of them and a developmentally disabled son.
"I will never say I made a mistake," she said in a recent interview with the Advance. She asked that her last name not be used in this article. "It had no chance. I believe in quality of life, not a life where he's going to be miserable."
Although many would strongly disagree with her assertions about the quality of life of people with Down syndrome, Rita is clearly not alone in her thinking. An estimated 90 percent of women who learn their babies will have Down syndrome decide to get abortions, according to research by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which is a division of the National Institute for Health.
Since the tests to determine this abnormality usually aren't performed until at least the 15th week of development, these abortions account for a significant percentage of so-called partial-birth abortions, said Dr. Albert G. Thomas, chief of family planning services at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.
Partial-birth abortions are commonly thought of as surgical procedures performed after the 12th week of fetal development that include removing an intact fetus from the womb via the cervix.
Much information about these procedures and why people undergo them remains clouded by politics. Many doctors, genetic therapists and special education specialists contacted for this article, including those who work with individuals with Down syndrome, declined to comment or did not return phone calls. When asked why, some indicated they did not want to attract controversy; others said they were not equipped to respond.

One mother's choice to abort
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Some physicians who support abortion rights assert that the term "partial-birth" is not medical and is so vague that it casts a pall of uncertainty over many procedures that doctors perform. Those opposed to abortion rights disagree, saying that the procedure is clearly defined by both doctors and legislators.
Pro-choice doctors argue that the so-called partial-birth abortion is often the safest method for a mother to terminate a pregnancy that is at least four or five months along. They argue that deciding which abortion procedure to use is a medical decision, not one for the courts. Anti-abortion activists disagree
The difficult decision about whether to abort a fetus with genetic abnormalities has been complicated by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, upholding federal legislation that bans partial-birth abortions. The 5-to-4 ruling was unique in that it upheld a law that did not make exceptions for fetuses with genetic abnormalities, nor for a mother's health.
While the ruling has been hailed and condemned by various groups according to their position on abortion rights, there has been less talk about one debate that lies in the center of that ruling -- namely, how such legislation will affect people facing the decision of whether to abort a fetus that has chromosomal problems.
"It will have a profound effect on patients who are caught in these awful circumstances," said Dr. James Grifo, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University.
As is, he said, "These decisions are a lot more complicated than people would realize."
Dr. Grifo said it's important to distinguish situations like Rita's from partial-birth abortions of convenience.
For mothers who, like Rita, face two bad options, he said, "there's nothing good about that situation."
He argued, "To have to make an incredibly difficult decision and then to have legislation that basically dictates what you can or cannot do is practicing medicine without a license."
Rita clearly remembers the 10 days she spent waiting for the results of a test that eventually determined her baby would likely be born mentally retarded. Rita trolled through various Internet sites, talked with her evangelist mother, and discussed the options with her sister, who worked with Down syndrome children.

In November of 2003, Rita, who is a stay-at-home mother, made an agonizing choice: She could not keep a baby who could ultimately force her to pay significantly less attention to her other children and who would subject her family to unknowable amounts of stress. Her mother and sister supported her decision.
She cried with her obstetrician-gynecologist on Staten Island after making her choice, and then drove four hours to a doctor in upstate New York who specialized in the procedure. Insurance paid for Rita to abort her 19-week-old fetus, since it was deemed a medical termination.

Doctors dilated Rita the day before the surgery, and then, the next day, stuck bamboo sticks in her uterus, she recalled. She remembers saying, "If it's going to be painful, bring it on." But she pleaded with the doctors to not allow her baby to feel pain.
When a reporter asked her what happened to the fetus, Rita began to cry.
"Medical waste," she said. Quickly composing herself, she said that people don't know how they would respond until they find themselves in such a situation.
"My two children would have suffered," Rita said. "They would not have had their mom."
One of the more common reasons women get partial birth abortions is due to "genetic abnormalities or congenital abnormalities, where a woman has a fetus that is not compatible with life," Dr. Thomas said.
The National Right to Life Committee disagrees with Dr. Thomas's assessment, saying that partial-birth abortions have less to do with medicine than one particular procedure that it says is hardly ever necessary.
A small percentage of partial-birth abortions involves women whose fetuses have genetic abnormalities, said Douglas Johnson, the NRLC's legislative director. In the case of a fetal medical problem, Johnson said, "Our position is that every member of the human family should be given basic respect and be able to live out their natural life span."
He added, "We believe that child has a right to life, even if that life, regrettably, will only last one day."
Rita remembers coming home after the procedure. It was Christmastime. Her 6-year-old son was learning how to read Dr. Seuss's "Cat in the Hat;" he was loving his schoolwork, T-ball and baseball. His 3-year-old brother was beginning to talk and was quickly assuming the role of his older brother's sidekick.
"I never let them know I was sad," Rita said. "And I was sad. I'm still sad." She recalls her eldest son saying, "Maybe the baby will come for Christmas." Not knowing how to respond, Rita simply said, "Jesus said Mommy's not ready to have a child."
She still carries the black-and-white images from the last sonogram of her unborn fetus. She prays with her children every night, and melts when she sees a child with Down syndrome. While she doesn't accept Communion, she doesn't think she did anything wrong, and believes that "God is a good God. God forgives us."
After reading comments said by various politicians and pundits about the ills of partial-birth abortion, Rita said she felt she had to tell her story. She said her action was selflessly motivated, aimed at preserving the quality of life for her living and non-living children.
"I think I did the right thing for all my children," she added. "Who would have helped me find a good institution? What about the mom who doesn't have a lot of help? What happens to those kids?"
Lisa Schneider covers health news for the Advance. She may be reached at schneider@siadvance.com.