Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said Sunday that a Washington Post op-ed that defends the decision to abort Down syndrome babies was “offensive.”
The Washington state Republican has a son in the fifth grade with Down syndrome, and she tweeted out several articles about people and families that have overcome this obstacle. She also explained how Cole was just like other little boys, participating in the Cub Scouts and playing basketball.
“When our son, Cole, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, my husband and I were given a long list of challenges and complications from his doctors,” Rodgers tweeted. “But when we looked at Cole, we still saw lots of potential.”
When our son, Cole, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, my husband and I were given a long list of challenges and complications from his doctors. But when we looked at Cole, we still saw lots of potential.
— CathyMcMorrisRodgers (@cathymcmorris) March 12, 2018
The bylined author of the op-ed, Ruth Marcus, said laws prohibiting abortion based on the knowledge that a child will be born with Down syndrome are “unconstitutional, unenforceable, and wrong.”
However, Rodgers said in one of her tweets that every baby has a right to life, and argued that “we live in an extraordinary time in which we’re not bound by the conditions of our birth.”
In 2017 reports started circulating that Icelandic citizens aborted 100 percent of babies who would be born with Down Syndrome, and a baby with the condition had not been born in that country in the past five years.
