This, from yesterday’s Globe:  

But others fear Ms. Palin’s emergence as a parental role model sends a different message. As a vocal opponent of abortion, Ms. Palin’s widely discussed decision to keep her baby, knowing he would be born with the condition, may inadvertently influence other women who may lack the necessary emotional and financial support to do the same, according to André Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. Dr. Lalonde said that above all else, women must be free to choose, and that popular messages to the contrary could have detrimental effects on women and their families. “The worry is that this will have an implication for abortion issues in Canada,” he said.

Dr. Lalonde said he aims to ban hope next. “After all, those going through tough times hardly need to be reminded that others are doing AOK, have pulled through,” he said. “Seeing that something better exists could totally eradicate their choice to be unhappy, miserable, even. And that choice is important.”

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Tanya adds: It’s a tough task, bashing Palin and sounding intelligent at the same time. She supports the war AND has a child going off to fight it. She opposes abortion AND made the choice to carry to term a pregnancy that 95% of women would have terminated.

It’s so much easier to pick someone apart when they’re full of hot air – is the lesson here.

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Patricia adds: Perhaps Dr. Lalonde would feel more comfortable about the status of “choice” in Canada if I kept my youngest daughter (who has Down Syndrome) in a closet. After all, sometimes when I go out with her, I might let it slip that I actually like having her around, am proud of her and, heaven forbid, love her and am glad that she was born, imperfect as she, and I, are.

Just think how that would threaten “choice”. Imagine what would happen if Canada was filled with people like us, just wandering around looking happy or maybe even normal, putting pressure on women who just want to be unhappy and miserable about their imperfect babies so as to feel like they have no option but to abort them, for everyone’s good.

Funny, I thought the job of an obstretrician was to provide care for pregnant women so they could have healthy babies, and wouldn’t die giving birth. Instead, according to Dr. Lalonde, it’s to protect “choice”, above all else. And apparently, women’s abilities to make choices are so fragile that they need to be protected from the real experience of other women. The fact that I and countless other parents who actually have children with Down Syndrome aren’t miserable all the time, that we actually think it’s a good thing to have children with Down Syndrome in the world, that we don’t see ourselves as victims of some horrible cosmic injustice who are justified in exterminating our own imperfect children, that is a threat to “choice”.

Much better for women to rely on the blinkered advice of “doctors”, most of whom have absolutely no experience of parenting a special needs child and many of whom seem far more concerned about the professional horrors of delivering a less than perfect baby. (Ask my doctor about the grilling she and I both got when she allowed my “defective” youngest to slip through the cracks of modern prenatal care.)

A woman can feel really good about having this Society watching out for her better interests, can’t she?