Jaden's Journal author has a mission to lower the abortion rate of Down syndrome children

Click here to read her powerful letter to Senator Kennedy who had introduced a bill( # 609) in the last session of Congress to inform parents expecting a child with Down syndrome of the truth of their child's future, from experts in the field of Down sydrome, and parents who are raising a child with Down syndrome, instead of terrifying them with grim statisics, outdated scenarios of life with the condition, and an overriding expectation that they will abort their child. The bill is not currently active in Congress, as it needs to be re-introduced.

See this article by Jonathan Finer of the Washington Post, who wrote "We felt hopeless and incredibly scared," Allard, 42, said in an interview. "We didn't know what this was or what to do. They told us we had a few weeks to decide whether to keep the baby."

Such negative depictions of Down syndrome by health professionals who do prenatal screening are common, according to a Harvard survey of nearly 3,000 parents of children with the condition, published last month in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A majority reported that the obstetricians who gave them the diagnosis had focused on the hardships ahead and ignored "the positive potential of people with Down syndrome."

The abortion rate of Down sydrome children is currently 90% and this is a tragedy! Senator Brownback mentioned this at the Blogs for Life Conference and at the March for Life in January. I discussed his earlier efforts to pass this bill in 2005, which some members of Congress buried in committee, and encouraged him to keep trying for the sake of my little Christina, who will grow up without the pleasure of similar friends.

Thank you for your past support of this legislation, Senators Kennedy and Brownback. We are asking you to please re-introduce this bill in this session of Congress.