SANFORD, Florida, June 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Courtney Baker says her doctor continually pressured her to abort her daughter after the child was diagnosed with Down syndrome. Now, she believes her 15-month-old girl, Emersyn Faith, is “perfect,” despite the genetic condition, and she wants the doctor to know “how valuable and worthy the unborn are.”
So, she wrote – and her infant daughter mailed – a letter to the doctor she says tried to coerce her into abortion.
Baker says she was devastated after learning of the diagnosis, fearful of what the future would bring. With time and resolve, she sought out a new OB/GYN to give her baby the best chance at life – but none would agree to help her.
She finally found a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, who repeatedly told her that she and her child would have a poor quality of life if the child were born.
“Instead of support and encouragement, you suggested we terminate our child,” she wrote in her letter to the unnamed doctor. “I told you her name, and you asked us again if we understood how low our quality of life would be with a child with Down syndrome. You suggested we reconsider our decision to continue the pregnancy.”
Although they made clear that abortion was never going to be an option, Emersyn's parents felt pressured to abort every time they met with the doctor. The stress affected them even between visits.
“From that first visit, we dreaded our appointments,” she wrote.
But then their baby girl was born, and Baker says little Emersyn has given them “the happiest year of our lives.”
That's something she thought her doctor should take under advisement before counseling any other patients.
“I knew how important it was going to be to write that letter before Emmy was even born,” she told ABC News on Tuesday.
Her letter shows profound reverence for the mystery of life. Baker told her doctor that she is not bitter or angry.
“I’m sad the tiny beating hearts you see every day don’t fill you with a perpetual awe. I’m sad the intricate details and the miracle of those sweet little fingers and toes, lungs and eyes and ears don’t always give you pause,” she wrote. “I’m sad you were so very wrong to say a baby with Down syndrome would decrease our quality of life. And I’m heartbroken you might have said that to a mommy even today.”
An estimated 90 percent of all babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. Paul Root Wolpe, director of the center for ethics at Emory University, has said this is leading to “a world without Down syndrome.”
Occasionally, the tests are wrong, a tiny percentage that is not detected until after birth – if the child reaches that point.
No less than 99 percent of people diagnosed with Down syndrome said they are happy with their lives, according to a study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. Only four percent of parents or siblings reported any regret over having a member of the family with Down syndrome.
“I want doctors to know how valuable and worthy the unborn are, typical and disabled,” Baker told NBC's Today Parents. “I want everyone else to soften their hearts and learn that we're all different, but we all deserve life and we all deserve love.”
Baker's letter – which was originally posted June 5 on the website of Parker Myles, the mother of boy who has Down syndrome – has been shared thousands of times. The uplifting story has been reported by such surprising outlets as Cosmopolitan magazine.
“I have no idea how the doctor might have reacted to my letter,” Baker told ABC, “but I do have faith that God can work any miracle and he can change any heart.”
