Millennial Catholic Anna Keating writes:

Once openly discussed in early 20th-century America as eugenics, it was widely accepted as a moral duty for mainline Protestants and progressives to avoid having diseased or deformed children. The American Eugenics Society referred to them as “people born to be a burden on the rest.” After World War II and the horrors of state-sponsored eugenics in Germany, this proposition was reimagined as “genetic counseling.” Americans no longer speak of “improving the quality of the race”; we simply do it as a matter of course…

After the Second World War, the eugenics movement became less coercive, and there were fewer forced sterilizations of “imbeciles,” criminals and racial minorities. Instead, producing “better” children, became a voluntary, parental and social duty. “Responsible parenthood” came to mean discriminating reproduction and the scientific pursuit of the good or comfortable life. Part of this meant using prenatal testing and abortion to prevent the births of certain “kinds” of people, part of what Pope Francis condemns as the “throw-away culture.”…

I do not want to instrumentalize people with health issues. Yet, the fact remains that I had this friend who was and is an amazing person, who has done and continues to do amazing things, and she has cystic fibrosis…

Prenatal testing is used to eliminate the “unfit” in utero. As a Catholic, my fears about prenatal testing being used to eliminate the “unfit” in utero will surprise no one. Part of being Catholic is hearing that vulnerability and suffering are a part of human life and that human life is sacred. Jesus stands with the rejected and tells his followers that they, the widows and the orphans, are to be favored. Being religious means believing that, despite appearances, no human life is worth more than any other. I dread the cross, but I was also raised to expect it…

What has helped make Libby’s life so beautiful is the culture of love and acceptance that her parents and her sister and her community have created. This is often not the case. With genetic counseling, elective abortion for the full 40 weeks and a culture that is uncomfortable with human weakness and difference, parents of ailing children suffer twice—once from their child’s pain, and again because they are seen as responsible for it….

How different are political conservatives and liberals on this issue, when, according to Kaiser Permanente, 94 percent of pregnancies in the United States with a C.F. diagnosis end in abortion? Of course, there are partial political solutions: universal health care, a robust social safety net, laws restricting late term abortions. These are all good things. But real change would also require a change of heart.

You can read more about her friend Libby and the full story here.