…about the enormous contradiction between those who claim to be “prolife” while putting crushing pressure on those struggling with financial hardship, reader Emma Fox Wilson wrote over on the Book of Face:
This is for all the people on Catholic Answers’ page, who just replied to Jane Lebak’s moving and heartfelt comment about how – if we really care about reducing the number of abortions happening – we urgently need to be fighting hard to improve services for babies and children with disabilities.
Most of the replies Jane got were actively rude or aggressive – which is pretty impressive for people who are supposed to be awake for the Gospel in Mass. Others fell back on smug claims of “oh – don’t be silly! All these services are already available for people with disabilities.”
Firstly – check your arrogance.
Do you honestly believe that all the parents who are struggling, or homeless, or skipping meals so that their children can eat – do you honestly believe that all these people are just lying, or not trying hard enough? Do you honestly believe – as plenty of you had the gall to suggest – that maybe these parents are simply not as deeply godly and loving towards children as you are?
If so, please stop. For your own sake.
Secondly – check your facts.
The services which you are waving prospective parents so smugly towards are largely gone. They weren’t in great shape to begin with – and they have now been gutted by Trump.
And he proposes to slash them even harder this year.
So – most of you Catholic Answers people – where were you when these things happened? Were you so busy with your fancy prayers outside abortion clinics, or brandishing your precious feet badges, that you forgot to speak up about Trump’s actions? Much of what he is doing is actively illegal. All of it has left millions of parents – and prospective parents – of disabled children, to flounder alone and unaided.
Take a look. And then maybe consider apologising to Jane.
1. In 2025, Trump slashed administrators for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). When I say slashed, I mean that he fired virtually all the staff.
About 15% of all American children used to rely on help from IDEA – these are children with Down Syndrome, or children who are blind, children who can’t speak, or who have speech-impediments, or intellectual disabilities. But Trump doesn’t care. And you apparently didn’t speak up. So the jobs went.
The people at OSEP, alone, used to distribute nearly $15 billion in funding, every year. This money paid for special education teachers, speech and occupational therapists, and assistive technology. It paid people to run basic screening and early interventions for struggling toddlers, so that these special little ones didn’t get left behind. *Millions* of families with disabled children relied on these services to survive, and to get their children a decent education.
Under Trump, that help is largely gone.
2. Trump also fired about half of all staff at the Department of Education, including the legal staff at OSEP. These were the people whose job it was to protect disabled children’s rights. These were the people who would wheel out the big laws, if a school district wasn’t giving disabled children the help they needed.
3. This year, Trump – with delusional advice from unqualified side-kicks like Dr Oz and RFK Jr. – plans to go much further. He plans to slash Medicaid by $1 trillion over the next decade. This will strand millions of parents who rely on Medicaid payments to allow them to care for their profoundly disabled children at home, without help.
Figures can only tell so much of a story. So let’s pause to look at two, real human lives – to understand what Trump is doing to real parents, in the real world. If you’re feeling strong, you can read about Melissa Gonce and her son, using the link below.
In the bad old days, Melissa’s beautiful, 27 year old son would sometimes come home terrified and covered in his own urine. Then she got help from Medicaid, so she could care for him herself, full time, at home – bathing him, changing him, feeding him, keeping him loved and safe. After just a short time, he started to thrive and even to become a little more independent.
Under Trump, that vital help is being taken from Melissa and her son. She stands to lose $18,000 a year.
He’s the young man in the picture. Look at him. And then, if you have a conscience, get out there and protest.
4. When you protest, you will not be alone. Virtually every single Down Syndrome organisation in the country, has reacted with alarm and horror to Trump’s cuts – along with national organisations for the blind, the deaf, children with autism, epilepsy, and muscular dystrophy.
We are not talking about a handful of Trump-haters here, we are talking about vast, non-political associations like the American Council of the Blind, the American Psychological Association, the Autism Society of America, The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the Council for Learning Disabilities, First Focus on Children, the National Deaf-Blind Coalition, and hundreds of others.
You can read the full list here.
So, if you really care about saving babies – and about helping parents who are making impossible decisions, to see that there may be a way forward, and that they are not alone – then please spend less time shouting at good people like Jane and more time shouting at proven child-haters like Trump and his casually cruel, child-hating administration.
Trump and his friends are ruining millions of lives and costing even more lives, in numbers that maybe only God can count. You can still change that. Thank you.
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