Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author.

While Iceland aborts 100% of prenatal cases of Down syndrome, the United States is not far behind, due to the rise of prenatal testing and normalization of aborting “imperfect children.”

I was the scared mother of a baby diagnosed with Trisomy 21 — Down syndrome — at 11 weeks pregnant. When the world offered 'termination' and validated that action, my husband and I chose to trust God.

'Casual' Talk of Murder

I was past the age of 35 and I knew the polite term, “advanced maternal age,” was the category I was being placed in. The noninvasive prenatal testing, or NIPT, was normalized for my age bracket and I went along with the blood draw procedure, thinking knowledge was power.

If my baby was diagnosed with any genetic difference, I would educate myself and take the time during pregnancy to plan.

The morning of my results, I had two missed calls and a portal message from my NIPT provider. The alarms in my head went off instantly.

Rather than call the doctor’s office, I opened the portal and an AI bot read the results: High-risk Trisomy 21, 95/100.

While the fear was very much present, God was grounding my husband and me in that very moment. We quickly set up an appointment for an ultrasound to look for any soft markers. The doctor mentioned a few areas of concern, and a chorionic villus sampling (CVS) was set up for the following day.

The CVS procedure consisted of a needle being inserted through my abdomen and taking a sample of the placental tissue. The ultrasound and CVS were tests done to confirm a diagnosis.

But what the medical professionals missed was the very human life they were diagnosing.

No test could measure the person this baby was going to be — the life created by God to serve Him. Everyone wanted to define our child and measure our baby’s worth even before birth.

'Termination' was offered very casually, discussed like small talk rather than murder.

The Dark Underbelly of Eugenics

When I did my research, I came to know the dark underbelly of the genetic testing world, and how the majority of lives diagnosed with Trisomy 21 prenatally are aborted on a worldwide scale. 

Jerome Lejeune, a French scientist, successfully identified the extra copy of chromosome 21. He thought his discovery would be used for good, and would drive research and advancement. Instead, it led to genetic tests, which has led to abortions.

Lejeune devoted the remainder of his existence to the pro-life cause after realizing what his research was being used for. 

Prenatal testing goes far beyond providing a 'guess' for the diagnosis of Down syndrome based on an ultrasound. The NIPT was specifically designed to detect Trisomy 21. And women that fall in the advanced maternal age category aren’t the only ones urged to take this genetic test.

Many women receive the blood draw for an early gender reveal. Most countries have women take the NIPT as part of their prenatal care. It also drives a large profit. In the United States, the NIPT market is expected to grow to $36.79 billion by 2034.

Equipping the Church

How do we equip women with a high-risk NIPT in one hand and a Bible in the other? We need the church as a body to be bolder and more vocal about what is happening behind closed doors.

Women’s Bible studies, young adults’ groups, and married small groups need to be having these conversations. The physical church needs to address abortion more clearly, and if we claim to be “fearfully and wonderfully made,” the dangers of the NIPT concerning eugenics needs to be clearly stated.

How are we preparing our young women?

How are we preparing married couples before they have children?

Those medical professionals in a place of power will offer the world’s opinion. But we know Who holds the most power. We need to armor pregnant women with values that are eternal and holy.

All life is worthy, precious, and valuable. No measure from society can measure up to the love from our Creator.

The destruction of life, whether based on the NIPT or graded on a scale like IVF is currently doing, is a moral wrong that defies the gift bestowed by God. 

The Promise

My husband and I gave our complete trust to the Lord after the diagnosis. Of course there was still fear, and a list of unknowns. But the ultimate Author is the only one who knows the story.

Several weeks after our diagnosis, God gave me a promise — a dream showing the glimpse of our future in which the Down syndrome diagnosis was confirmed, but all ultrasounds showed no health concerns. In the dream, I sat in a doctor’s office holding a bright blonde-haired boy on my lap while having a conversation with another woman who had received a Trisomy 21 diagnosis, reassuring her everything would be okay. 

On the day of my c-section, as worship music filled the room, our son Rowan was born with no additional health issues.

Since that day, I have spoken with many women that have received high-risk prenatal results. My son’s hair is growing in... and it's bright blonde. All of God’s promises to me were fulfilled.

And my promise to Him will always be to advocate for the little lives that are being given so little value. Because I look at my son now and I see how he was so lovingly crafted. My little miracle.

People may say, “But what’s the miracle? He was still born with Down syndrome.” But they are missing our Creator’s heart.

The miracle is that through this experience I now better understand how our Maker sees us.

Every life is intentionally made and known by Him before we are ever formed in the womb.