Despite the 2024 State of the Union being more than a month away, the Biden Administration has begun their pro-abortion publicity stunts already with the invitation of Kate Cox to be a guest at the address. Cox became a nationally known name last year when she unsuccessfully sued the state of Texas for the “relief” of a court-ordered abortion after her preborn child was diagnosed with Trisomy-18. The Supreme Court of Texas found that she did not have the right to evade state pro-life laws and have an intentional abortion as her life was not in danger due to this genetic condition of her child (the presence of an extra eighteenth chromosome which results in life-limiting developmental delays).

Cox ended up leaving the Lone Star State to abort her preborn child — and now she has a seat at the President’s annual address on the condition of our country. What should pro-lifers make of this?

To learn more about Cox’s story, click HERE to read another Students for Life of America blog
entitled “The Texan Court-Ordered Abortion Saga is Finished with the Lone Star State Setting Pro-Life Precedent.”

As White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said recently that this is one of the ways Biden intends to “lift up those very personal stories” about abortion following the Dobbs decision (or more importantly, before the presidential elections later this year), you need to make sure you’re getting the entire story. The abortion lobby is attempting to use Cox’s experience as ammunition in their fight, but there’s a lot more to this case than they would like to share. However, it all really boils down to two questions:

Do children with Trisomy 18 have to die, and does it have to be at their parents’ hand?

To answer the first question, no. Trisomy 18 (also known as Edwards Syndrome) is not a death sentence, despite what the abortion lobby would have you believe. There are a significant number of children with this condition who have lived years past their delivery, and this article from Live Action introduces you to four of them, including former Senator Rick Santorum’s 15-year-old daughter Bella. You can read about other precious children diagnosed with Trisomy 18 HERE, as well about another Trisomy 18 baby who lived to celebrate her 40^th birthday as a grown woman.

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists affirmed and further explained this variance in life expectancy for those diagnosed with Trisomy 18 recently in an online webinar with medical experts. Click HERE to join to this section in their presentation.

Yet this isn’t what we see from the mainstream media — a reality that angers many parents of Trisomy 18 children. According to a Newsweek article which documented the reactions of different parents to the Cox media coverage, one mother stated:

“Our community has kids as old as 42 in it. My daughter is five years old and a very loved member of our family. This diagnosis is full spectrum, just like all things in life, and not the black and white, one-size-applies-to-all label that they are making this out to be. The defamation and lies being said about this diagnosis and our children isn’t only just untrue, it’s actually incredibly dangerous. It’s furthering outdated statistics and personal opinions about our kids that make it very hard to get unbiased, supportive medical care. What this woman has been told is one possible outcome, leaving out all the rest of the possible outcomes and sadly, this isn’t uncommon in the experience of newly diagnosed parents.”

Here’s another important thing to note: fetal diagnoses are wrong all the time. The New York Times found that common prenatal tests can be wrong when screening for rare diseases 80% – 93% of the time…yet it is sadly these tests that can lead many parents to abort their children.

But let’s say the test is right and your preborn child with Trisomy 18 may not live long…is killing them “proactively” at your own hand the answer?

Once again, no… because who are we to determine the length of another human’s life? Many parents may unfortunately be led to believe so, however, because the information regarding the humane option — perinatal hospice — is not as readily available.

As Students for Life of America (SFLA) has written previously, “perinatal palliative care programs allow parents to meet their child and to fully grieve their loss. This care is fully encompassing, providing a compassionate explanation of the diagnosis, walking the parents through the emotionally strenuous pregnancy process, and counseling the parents through the grieving processes beyond the loss of the child.”

You can learn more about prenatal diagnoses and perinatal hospice by listening to SFLA President Kristan Hawkins ‘Explicitly Pro-life’ podcast episode of the topics HERE or by reading several SFLA blogs below:

• How Can Pro-Lifers Compassionately Address Tragic Miscarriages? Understanding Perinatal Hospice is Step One
• Perinatal Hospice: Babies with Life-Limiting Conditions & Their Families Deserve Love, Not Abortion 
• A Fetal Diagnosis Shouldn’t Be a Death Sentence — Doctors Who Disagree, Don’t Let the Door Hit You

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to really breaking down the truth around Trisomy 18 — but even a basic understanding of how Cox’s story has been manipulated and made hazy by the pro-abortion narrative is important.  Pro-Life Generation, here’s your homework before the State of the Union: help spread the truth about how abortion was never medically necessary in this case and how our society should deal compassionately with such diagnoses instead.

READ NEXT: A Different Kind of “Miracle of Life:” How a Preborn Baby Helped Her Mother Survive a Life-Threatening Condition