{"id":301921,"date":"2023-11-22T08:40:44","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T14:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=301921"},"modified":"2023-11-20T17:49:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T23:49:39","slug":"mom-refused-abort-down-syndrome-help-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mom-refused-abort-down-syndrome-help-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom who refused to abort baby with Down syndrome has made it her mission to help others"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One Colorado woman who was encouraged to abort her child with Down syndrome has now made it her mission to ensure that other parents have support when facing the same diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Marsha Weigum, a Jamaican immigrant, was pregnant with her sixth child when doctors told her the preborn baby had a 99% chance of a Down syndrome diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Marsha told the Post Independent<\/a> that she had already had some experience working with children who had Down syndrome.<\/p>\n

\u201cDown syndrome, the word is not strange to me,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the job I did. My favorite child of them all working with the organization was one with Down syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n

She asked her doctor, \u201cWhat\u2019s next for the prenatal care? Do we need to be doing something different?\u201d But instead of hearing words of support, she was offered the option to abort her son and was given a laundry list of ways in which her child would likely struggle in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI listened to her, but the minute she said termination, I didn\u2019t think I wanted to hear much more,\u201d Marsha explained. \u201cThese children are awesome, they\u2019re innocent children, and now here I am having my own.\u201d<\/p>\n