(LifeSiteNews) — The debate surrounding selectively aborting disabled babies has gained prevalence in the year and a half after the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade. As many states have enacted restrictions or near-total bans on abortion, more headlines pop up to publicize a woman’s desire to kill her unborn child who has been diagnosed with a fatal disability – and her inability to do so legally.
In recent weeks, 31-year-old Kate Cox of Dallas, Texas filed a lawsuit against the state to obtain a temporary block on the abortion ban. She sought to abort her 20-week-old child who had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards’ syndrome, which leads to significant disability due to the child’s underdeveloped body. As Cox had presumably been told, many of these children die shortly after birth or rarely live more than a year.
One day after a judge granted an exception to the state’s near-total abortion ban, the Texas Supreme Court blocked the order – which only allows exceptions for situations deemed “necessary” to spare the mother alleged risk of physical impairment or death. After the highest court’s move to maintain the law, Cox left Texas to obtain an abortion out of state.
The life-threatening disabilities associated with Trisomy 18 are understandably devastating. But while medical professionals consistently recommend abortion as a path forward after this diagnosis, the potential for life-saving medical treatment is not advertised to parents.
Dr. Glenn Green of the University of Michigan medical school and hospital, known collectively as Michigan Medicine, is a leading specialist in effective treatments for Trisomy 18. He is a professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the university and specializes in pediatric otolaryngology, including congenital syndromes and breathing difficulties often present in Trisomy 18.
During a 2020 virtual conference hosted by the Support Organization for Trisomy (SOFT), Green explained that medical textbook advice states to explain the basic abnormality of a child developing with three (instead of two) copies of chromosome 18, disclose the low survival rates of the condition and offer to move forward without any medical intervention. The estimated survival rate of Trisomy syndrome is grim, he shared via a presentation slide, with approximately 95% of children with Trisomy 18 or Trisomy 13 dying “within the first few weeks of life from either cardiac failure or respiratory distress/apnea.”
Green then details how, in his work at Michigan Medicine, his patients saw an overall “65% one-year survival” rate. Out of 28 patients for which he “was the consulting physician,” 26 of them survived, amounting to a 93 percent “personal survival” rate. This data was based on 40 Michigan Medicine Trisomy patients.
“We can have extremely high survivals,” Green said during the conference. “This survival during the early period is dependent on aggressive respiratory intervention.”
The doctor also specified that if “airway obstruction and cardiac disease” is treated immediately, babies with Trisomy 18 are “expected” to have “long-term survival.” A separate analysis published earlier this year found that, when comparing Trisomy 18 infants who are treated with intensive care with those treated non-intensively, half of those in the intensive care unit “were discharged alive” compared with the others, all of whom “died during hospitalization.”
Over the years, dozens of inspiring stories about families who chose life for their Trisomy 18 babies who then receive the treatment they need and survive have been shared. Green’s dedication to treating children with such intense disabilities has aided in these miracles, as epitomized in the case of a girl named Faith.
According to a 2022 interview with The Pillar, Brad and Jesi Smith met with Green when their daughter, Faith, was two years old. Before her birth, the parents were told that their child had Trisomy 18, described as a “fatal fetal anomaly” that was “incompatible with life.” The Smiths had to fight for basic medical care even after Faith was born. She struggled with breathing due to a short jaw, an issue that was not disclosed to the parents except by Green.
The Michigan doctor performed a successful jaw distraction procedure on the toddler, which marked the end of her life-threatening breathing trouble and eventually helped her to learn to walk since her body was no longer fighting to breathe. Faith will turn 15 this December.
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