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Happening ... in the Local Church
SCHIP concerns
To the Editor:
In reading Bishop William Higi’s recent article, “Some thoughts on the veto of the SCHIP Act of 2007” (Jan. 27), I was struck very personally by not only the concerns he raised regarding the bill’s proposed changes that would in effect publicly fund abortions, but also by extension a more deeply disturbing possibility to which such a change could lead. The proposed change to which Bishop Higi referred, now supported by Planned Parenthood, was an elimination of existing medical coverage for unborn children and the potential funneling of millions of funds once earmarked for these youngest patients instead to the promotion of “‘confidential family planning services’ that include sterilization, contraception, and abortion.”
Our family has two children who could easily qualify medically for Indiana’s version of the SCHIP program. While their circumstances are hardly what our family would even consider “debilitating,” they do nevertheless fall under society’s view as “congenital defects” and, in the case of one son, “special needs.”
Many people more educated and publicly supportive of the pro-life movement than I have pointed to the close ties between abortion, sterilization and the practice politely referred to as eugenics. As someone who is pregnant now, I am also well aware that as a part of first-trimester care, women can choose to take a blood test to discern whether certain conditions such as Down Syndrome might be present in the baby. While it is of course not the only legitimate reason to have the test, one can assume that some women might consider an abortion should the results reveal such a “disability.”
What concerns me most deeply about the proposed SCHIP alteration is that it could easily lead us toward a subversive form of federally promoted eugenics. One can imagine women being strongly coerced or pressured into having abortions for babies found in utero to have developmental or other medical disabilities. In fact, I can almost hear the argument now that parents who benefit from SCHIP and already have children with “special needs” should be strongly encouraged to avoid any future births that would drain limited resources from a federally funded program. Lest this sound radical, I can personally point to at least one mother I know who was consistently pressured to abort one of her twins because that son’s life would not be “worth living.”
The fact that this little boy (whose care is covered now under SCHIP) is a loving and interactive person is a victory for the family. Nevertheless, in this instance such a fact should be beside the point.
While I do not consider myself by nature a political person, I can understand perhaps more personally in this situation why our role as Catholic citizens must be to urge our legislators and government to think through the consequences and moralities of their actions. The toughest changes to overcome once made often happen incrementally. And, lest we think this argument has nothing to do with us because our “weaknesses” seem not as visible as others’, history should have taught us differently. One quick visit to the United Nation’s Web site on the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust reminds us that persons with “disabilities” were the first to be exterminated under the Nazis. Can we really say that such an extermination occurring today would be less tragic just because it occurred before, versus after, birth?
Saying “never again” is never enough. No human being is born perfect and in many ways disabilities are shaped by those who view them. We have a duty to our children and to ourselves to do all we can to stop this and other errors in governance before it is too late.
Michelle Foley
Westfield