Couple Says Doctors Pressured Them into Aborting Child with Down's Syndrome, But They Said 'No'

A pregnant woman touches her stomach. Most women who seek abortion will choose to keep their unborn babies if given proper help, according to the head of Heartbeat of Miami. Reuters

A couple from Australia has expressed criticism about how doctors they consulted in their country supposedly pressured them into aborting their child who was diagnosed with a genetic disorder.

According to a report on Christian.org, Andrew and Kathleen Simpkins recently shared on a television show in Australia how medical professionals repeatedly told them to kill their own baby who had Down's Syndrome.

Kathleen said one of the doctors she saw during her pregnancy was even visibly "shaking" when he was informing her about her baby's genetic disorder. The same doctor also advised her to undergo abortion procedures as soon as possible.

"He said, 'I'm so glad you came back, I've been trying to get hold of you. You had an abnormal scan and your window for termination is closing,'" Mrs. Simpkins said during her TV appearance.

Andrew, for his part, meanwhile lamented how the doctors painted a bleak picture of raising a child with Down's Syndrome. He said the medical practitioners made it appear that having a child with this genetic disorder is "so sad and awful that you wouldn't want to go through with it."

The couple, however, chose life and still have the baby, even after repeated advice from the doctors to have their child aborted. They are now happily raising their daughter, Eva.

The Simpkins' experience, however, only represents a wider truth about abortion in Australia. According to the same report onChristian.org, 60 percent of mothers from this country who gave birth to children with Down's Syndrome said doctors delivered the news about their babies' genetic disorder to them in a "poor" or "very poor manner and using "negative language."

One-fifth of the Australian moms also shared that they were repeatedly offered abortion by their doctors after knowing that their babies had Down's syndrome.

Thankfully, the same poll also found out that two-thirds of these women decided not to heed their doctors' advice, and to still give births to their babies despite their birth defect.

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