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Politics, Down Syndrome, and What I’m Reading

Politics, Down Syndrome, and What I’m Reading

Last updated on: January 31, 2014 at 9:59 am by Amy Julia Becker

Politics, Down Syndrome, and What I’m Reading 2014-01-31T09:59:29-05:00 Amy Julia Becker

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I have a new post at her.meneutics about politics and Down syndrome, with specific reference to Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ response to President Obama’s State of the Union address earlier this week. It begins:

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s response to the president’s State of the Union address last night drew attention to her family, and specifically to her oldest son Cole, who has Down syndrome. Her speech implied her personal and political support for children with Down syndrome, but as a fellow mother of a child with Down syndrome I’m torn by the inconsistent messages about Down syndrome (and other vulnerabilities) from both parties.

Liberals and conservatives alike don’t seem to understand the reasons to welcome people with Down syndrome into our families. When Sarah Palin was running for Vice President, conservative pundit Ann Coulter wrote about Palin for TIME: “And yes, she really did walk the walk on abortion when she found out she was carrying a Down-syndrome baby.” A similar sentiment arose in a recent article for Slate about McMorris Rodgers. Here, Hanna Rosin writes:

She found out her child had a high chance of having Down syndrome, then went into labor the next day. She never got to make the decision, although by that point she was already publicly anti-abortion, so it’s hard to imagine she would have done differently.

Ann Coulter and Hanna Rosin both infer that these women’s reproductive decisions were dictated by their conservative views on abortion, not the other way around. But perhaps both McMorris Rodgers and Palin had decided to welcome whatever life was given to them. Perhaps their posture towards life, pregnancy, and children came first, and then helped inform their politics.

To continue reading, click here.

And here are my tweets of other articles from the past week that you might enjoy:

Faith and Culture:

The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing#Missionaries http://ow.ly/sT6qK @CT_women #history

Ending the Sexual Prosperity Gospel (Part 1) @lukecirillo ow.ly/t3ibY #Abstinence #Pregnancy #Evangelicals

Books and Reading

http://ow.ly/sT5Pk Why is #reading #books fundamental? @nytimes @CharlesMBlow #socialmedia

“there is no intellectual equivalent to allowing oneself the time & space to get lost in another person’s mind” http://ow.ly/sT4S7 #read

From #Physics to #English. Why did #author & journalist, @JenniferPercy, change her major & life course? ow.ly/sZfYI@joefassler

Disability, Family, one extraneous post about money that is really interesting:

#Adopting a child with #DownSyndrome http://ow.ly/sT7b3 #parenting @HuffPostBlog

“Our son exists in the world in spite of how someone else feels about him [as] for all people with #DownSyndrome“http://ow.ly/sT8rt

Don’t you wish your kids were #PotteryBarnKids? ow.ly/t3jJg #parenting #humor

The smart embryo could have a strong negative impact as well Unless BGI is also creating a test for evil vs. good”DNAhttp://ow.ly/t6M5r

http://ow.ly/sOBDG For the Love of #Money @nytimes #addiction#wealth

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