{"id":278866,"date":"2022-10-31T12:34:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T17:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=278866"},"modified":"2022-11-02T23:27:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T04:27:56","slug":"love-blind-eugenic-abortion-angers-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/love-blind-eugenic-abortion-angers-down-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Love Is Blind’ eugenic abortion debate angers the Down syndrome community"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A recent conversation<\/a> between contestants on the reality show “Love Is Blind” has angered members of the Down syndrome community.<\/p>\n

On the show, contestants start by talking to each other through isolated pods, where they can have conversations without seeing each other face-to-face. Once a marriage proposal is accepted, they are finally able to see each other, and then spend time together in a couples retreat at a resort. Engaged couple Nancy Rodriguez and Bartise Bowden had previously bonded over their mutual love of children, but at 31, Rodriguez was worried that as she got older<\/a>, she would be at higher risk for having a child with birth defects \u2014 which led to the subject of abortion.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat would you do if you found out that your child had a birth defect and you could abort the pregnancy?” Rodriguez, who works as a speech language pathologist (SLP), asked. “Do you want to keep the baby?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowden had no hesitation whatsoever, and was immediately horrified at the prospect of undergoing a eugenic abortion. \u201cF*** no. Yeah, keep the baby,” he said. “What the f \u2014 yeah. I could not… F*** no.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Rodriguez had different ideas \u2014 and what angered members of the Down syndrome and disability community was how Rodriguez specifically used her work to justify<\/a> her support of eugenic abortions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s different for me,” she said. “I\u2019ve seen so much in my field. It was so emotionally draining and so sad that I would cry almost every day. A lot of time, even just with Down syndrome, there\u2019s so many complications… medical and also, learning complications. And I see the amount of trauma that it does to the family. For me, if I knew I could try again and hope that the second time it was better. I could go that route, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowden again shut that idea down, saying he was “mentally tough” enough to handle anything. “Really?” he asked. “I would never. I could never do that.”<\/p>\n

Later, the two discussed the issue with Bowden’s family, who is pro-life, and they were horrified. Bowden later expounded upon why in an interview afterwards. “The idea was the child that we planned on having was going to be terminated because it would be a problem for us,” he said. “It\u2019s like a way of taking the easy way out. And for my sister, who went to college and was in a program that was specifically geared to tending to special needs children, I knew it was going to be a problem if it got brought up at the dinner table, which it did. It was accurately depicted there.\u201d<\/p>\n