The headline, let alone the story, is so astonishingly awful, so morally oblivious that I checked it multiple times to make sure it was not a hoax. Alas, it wasn’t.
“Down Syndrome heading for extinction in Denmark,” read the headline in the Copenhagen Post. “98 percent of DS pregnancies were aborted last year.”
Accompanying the story, written by “Christian W,” is a stock photo of a girl with Down syndrome with this caption:
“Will DS be a thing of the past in the not too distant future.”
Of course it is not “Down Syndrome” that is headed for “extinction in Denmark” but real live unborn babies whose condition was discovered by a nuchal scan.
According to Webmd.com, a nuchal scan
uses ultrasound to measure the thickness of the fluid buildup at the back of the developing baby’s neck. If this area is thicker than normal, it can be an early sign of Down syndrome, trisomy 18, or heart problems.
The matter-of-fact language in this brief story is deeply troubling. Christian W. quotes Lilan Bondo, the head of the midwife association Jordemoderforeningen, who blandly says, “When you can discover almost all the foetuses with Down Syndrome, then we are approaching a situation in which almost all of them will be aborted.”
What’s made this horrific possibility plausible? All pregnant women have been offered the nuchal scan since 2004.
As a consequence, “The number of children born with Down Syndrome (DS) in Denmark has fallen drastically in recent years – so much so that the disorder could be a thing of the past in 30 years,” according to the story.
And this “steep drop” is a “positive development” to a majority of Danes, according to an Epinion survey. Among Danes
60 percent believed it was good there were considerably fewer kids with DS being born.
Taking just the men’s opinion, over 70 percent thought it was a good thing, while about 50 percent of the women held that same opinion.
I happened to notice that the story, which can be found here, hyperlinks back to a story written back in February.
That account lauds the development of a new test for dyslexia that “will identify students suffering from the learning disability across the education spectrum from the third grade all the way up to further education.” The Education Minister Christine Antorini says, “It’s important that pupils and students with dyslexia are given the opportunity to complete an education on equal footing with other students.”
Let me see if I get this straight You are well on the road to exterminating–I don’t think that is too strong a description–every last child in Denmark who would have been born with Down syndrome but you congratulate your country for identifying children with dyslexia earlier in school so that there can be “a more smooth transition between education levels for people with dyslexia.”
This is moral schizophrenia on steroids.
Editor’s note. If you want to peruse stories all day long, either go directly to nationalrighttolifenews.org
Chelsea Garcia is a political writer with a special interest in international relations and social issues. Events surrounding the war in Ukraine and the war in Israel are a major focus for political journalists. But as a former local reporter, she is also interested in national politics.
Chelsea Garcia studied media, communication and political science in Texas, USA, and learned the journalistic trade during an internship at a daily newspaper. In addition to her political writing, she is pursuing a master's degree in multimedia and writing at Texas.
