Here, we learn, as Joni writes, that all humans are created in the image of God, with intrinsic value. In fact, she says, “the image of God is especially mirrored in the weak” and disabled.

A young man named Doug made a startling announcement to a friend. “When I get married,” he said, “I hope that my wife and I will have a child with Down syndrome.”
The woman Doug told this to-Joni Eareckson Tada-chalked it up to youthful idealism. But as she writes in her new book, Life in the Balance, Doug meant every word. He’d spent a lot of time with children with Down Syndrome, and witnessed “an unusual joy and guilelessness” in them. And it was clear that these children were a blessing to their parents.

And yet, children with Down Syndrome are among the most “at-risk” when it comes to survival-not from their chromosomal abnormalities, but from doctors and scientists who are determined to wipe them out.

As Joni recalls, the National Council on Disability was shocked when NIH suggested in 1988 that abortion of Down Syndrome children be considered a “disability prevention strategy.”

The Disability Council sent the report back to NIH for revision. But here we are 22 years later, and this “strategy” has been fully embraced. In 2007, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists began recommending that ALL pregnant women, not just older ones, have their babies tested for Down Syndrome-you know what that meant.

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