A woman whose son has Down Syndrome says she was relieved when her husband encouraged her to walk out of an abortion centre.
Claire Martin says she “needed someone to say they were on my side”.
Claire and her husband Benjamin were planning to have an abortion, in part because of the negative response from family to the diagnosis.
Changed mind
Claire told Daily Mail Australia: “I told all my family I was pregnant with a baby with Down Syndrome and they would say ‘I’m so sorry’ and would cry and then hug me.”
She added that they had a lack of education about the issue, and that she “probably would’ve done the same thing as well”.
The couple planned to have an abortion and were at the facility when they changed their minds.
On my side
Claire said, “we were sitting there but then my husband dragged me outside”.
“He said, ‘What are we doing? Let’s go home, we can’t kill this baby’.
“I was relieved, I needed someone to say they were on my side”, she added.
Love
When their son, Xavier, was born, the medics held him up and said he was beautiful.
What are we doing? … we can’t kill this baby
Benjamin Martin
“I just remember feeling nothing but love. It was almost like everything that we’d been through over the past nine months didn’t matter because we had a perfect little baby”, Claire said.
In March, people around the world marked World Down Syndrome Day by raising awareness of the condition.
Choose Life
Recent figures show that on average 92 per cent of babies diagnosed before birth with Down Syndrome in England and Wales are aborted each year.
For more stories of people who have been affected by the issue of abortion, watch our Choose Life series.