Down’s is a chromosomal disorder – but not a life-threatening condition….as are several others that babies are found to have before birth. Today, over 90 per cent of babies found to have Down’s in antenatal tests are routinely aborted…..this is outrageous.

Human persons in early stages of development whose lives are lost to early miscarriage are actually (and horribly now that I think about it) discarded as “medical waste.” Am I correct that we treat worn American flags with more respect?

I am truly saddened and, like Mr. Nickol, shocked. I cannot explain my complete neglect or my failure to understand the importance of this issue

Sally Rogers’ prayer for “the dead who have no one to pray for them” will be my prayer after today.

Bret Lythgoe,

I liked pentamom’s observation, “To the extent that we fail to consider those lost unknowingly through natural death, that is our shame . . . .” And I agree that the magnitude of death of the unborn by natural causes has no bearing whatsoever on the ethics of abortion. I also appreciated Sally Thomas’s concept of “the dead who have no one to pray for them.” I appreciate Twin Mom’s support and comments, and I think there is actually a lot of agreement on this issue.

I remember my mother told me, long ago, but also long after it happened, that she once thought she might have had a very early miscarriage. She called our parish priest and asked him what she should do with the tiny mass that might possibly have been a very early embryo. He told her to flush it down the toilet. I was shocked, and it seemed clear to me from the way she told the story that it still upset her years after it happened.

CV,

I am sorry to hear of the loss you suffered. I think one of the side benefits of the pro-life movement’s emphasis on the humanity of the unborn is greater sensitivity to the feelings of mothers (and fathers) who lose a child through miscarriage.

There are obvious differences between an unborn infant dying of natural causes and being deliberately killed. However, I am not sure what the “moral distinction” you cite refers to in terms of the unborn themselves. They are not moral agents. If life (personhood) begins at conception, an unborn child who dies of natural causes, no matter how early, is no less of a person than an unborn child who dies by induced abortion. There is occasional talk of declaring the victims of abortion to be martyrs, as if somehow they did something of merit that the unborn who died of natural causes did not. But this makes no sense.

For those who oppose abortion, there may be value in calling attention to the magnitude of the issue by speculating how the world might be different if these children had been born. But I am struck by how easily changing just a few words in Katrina Trinko’s article could transform it into a piece about the unborn who died of natural causes without even the mothers being aware of their existence. Are they so unworthy of attention and discussion?

I appreciate your comment and agree with you.

I also find statistics about how many more people the US would have without abortion disturbing- many abortions are to women who go on to have subsequent pregnancies and research strongly suggests that the total number of children a woman has doesn’t change due to abortion any more than it changes due to miscarriage.