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Kathleen Rose Hardin was born with Trisomy 13 and is now age nine.

DUBLIN, Ireland, July 7, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Parents whose babies have been diagnosed with life-limiting conditions such as anencephaly and Trisomy 13 have said Irish politician Mick Wallace’s abortion bill would push disability rights back to the dark ages. 

Life Institute spokeswoman Tracy Harkin said: “We have endured two weeks of listening to our children being described as ‘fatal abnormalities,’ and it is simply appalling to see an Irish TD argue that unborn babies with a severe disability should be denied their right to life simple because of that disability.”

Harkin said the proposal amounted to a “naked discrimination,” and Wallace’ bill would push disability rights “back to the dark ages.”

“Mick Wallace’s bill would push disability rights back to the Dark Ages, because it proposes that babies who have a severe disability, and those babies alone, should be targeted for abortion. We think that the days when people with disabilities were treated cruelly are gone, but now we are seeing people in power arguing that their right to life before birth can be taken away,” she said. 

“The debate has been so disturbing, misleading and upsetting, to be honest,” she added. “My daughter, Kathleen Rose, is aged 9 and living with Trisomy 13, something campaigners wrongly call a ‘fatal foetal abnormality.’ She is the light of our home, not a life to be discarded.”

“We’ve had to fight for better treatment and better services for Kathleen Rose. Do we now have to fight for her right-to-life and for the right to life of every child who has a life-limiting condition,” Harkin said. “Parents actually need better support and care, like perinatal hospice care, instead of abortion, but we never hear Mick Wallace or John Halligan calling for that.” 

Harkin said parents welcomed the confirmation by the Chief Medical Officer that no condition could lead to a child being described as “incompatible with life” because no doctor could say with certainty how long a child could live beyond birth, however severe the disability. 

“The spin and the misinformation in this debate is horrible and it’s hurting parents,” she said. “These are our children, they were alive and kicking when we got the diagnosis, and whether they lived for days, weeks or years, their lived mattered because every child matters.”