{"id":241512,"date":"2021-03-15T11:27:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T16:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=241512"},"modified":"2021-03-11T22:49:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T04:49:24","slug":"teen-mother-refused-abort-down-syndrome-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/teen-mother-refused-abort-down-syndrome-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen mother refused to abort son with Down syndrome despite intense pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a book collecting stories<\/a> from family members of children with Down syndrome,\u00a0Danielle Urie tells the story of her son, Steven.\u00a0In 2010, Urie was 16 and pregnant. She delighted in seeing her child on the ultrasound screen, but after the third scan, she received some unsettling news from her doctors:<\/p>\n

The first two scans were amazing \u2013 seeing my precious baby on that dark screen, to say I was buzzing about life would have been an understatement. At the 16 week scan, the nurse told me I had to come back the next day to the fetal medicine unit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Doctors told her her baby had a condition called tricuspid atresia and would need major surgery when born.\u00a0Urie said, \u201cI was in deep shock\u2026 I really didn’t know how to feel.\u201d But doctors encouraged her to have an abortion. Urie refused:<\/p>\n

He was my baby and I was going to do whatever was needed. Doctors advised me to get a termination. I couldn’t do it. They gave me half an hour to decide \u2013 I didn’t need half an hour. I told them there and then there was no possibility I was going to abort. They told me Steven wouldn’t be able to have a good quality of life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not only did doctors pressure Urie to abort, but they also gave her only half an hour to make up her mind. They pressured her to make a quick decision in a moment of emotional trauma. Many women, still in the middle of processing the news that their child would have a severe health problem, would have given in the doctors\u2019 pressure and aborted. Urie did not.<\/p>\n