John Knight is Director of Donor Partnerships at Desiring God. He is married to Dianne, and together they parent their four children: Paul, Hannah, Daniel, and Johnny. Paul lives with multiple disabilities including blindness, autism, cognitive impairments, and a seizure disorder. John writes on disability, the Bible, and the church at The Works of God

John Knight is Director of Donor Partnerships at Desiring God. He is married to Dianne, and together they parent their four children: Paul, Hannah, Daniel, and Johnny. Paul lives with multiple disabilities including blindness, autism, cognitive impairments, and a seizure disorder. John writes on disability, the Bible, and the church at The Works of God

Recently a healthy young woman went to see her doctor for a prenatal checkup on her baby girl. She had named her Madison.

Then she went to an abortion clinic to end her daughter’s life.

Four days later, this mom died from complications related to that abortion.

That child went from being wanted — a beloved girl named Madison — to being terminated — one more slaughtered baby in our culture of death.

Why? They found out Madison had fetal anomalies.

Hearing that news as a parent is hard. If you have not experienced the shock of such a diagnosis in your child, then it is difficult to describe how truly horrifying it is. All the bright imaginations about what a little boy or little girl will be like are suddenly colored in very dark shades. The worst fears about the future and worst prejudices about disability make it difficult to think clearly or rationally, especially in the first days and weeks.

The evil whispers about how unfair it is become louder and bolder.

As my wife and I talked this over, she summed up our early days with disability really well: “I thought my life was over. It wasn’t true.”

Did anyone say that to Madison’s mother?

An Industry of Deception

I have lost track of the number of parents who received a prenatal diagnosis of disability who said the medical professionals began the process of scheduling an abortion. In that moment of their own shock and hurt, these parents had to defend their child against the very people who are supposed to care for them.

An entire industry is rising up to detect genetic anomalies much earlier in pregnancies. And they aren’t doing it to improve the care of those unborn babies.

The lies drip with hollow compassion and certainty about the future: “it will be better this way,” “that life is too horrible for anyone to want to live,” “it is kind to want to spare her that suffering.”

These aren’t just coming from strangers in the medical profession. Family members, friends, and trusted colleagues are breathing the toxic cultural fumes and repeating what they believe is really out of concern for their loved one. They have also been deceived.

What Do You Say?

Did anyone tell that young mom and dad that God knit their Madison together, intimately and carefully and purposefully (Psalm 139:13)? Did they know that God had already written down her days (Psalm 139:16)? Did they know?

Would your friends know?

You may know someone who has received news that their baby has fetal anomalies. Or you may know someone one day. What will you say to them?

Tell them about Henryk, or Hope and Gabriel, or Eliot. These are stories of life. All of their days were short in number, and God created each of them for a great purpose.

When parents hear this news they are immediately assaulted. Sinful impulses along with the father of lies and the culture conspire together and pressure them to make a quick, fatal action. Will you stand in the gap for that baby?

Before a young couple is faced with the hard news of disability, will they see children with disabilities in your church? Will they see mothers and fathers with disabled children acknowledging the pain yet standing in the strength that God provides? Will they see a church that loves all the children, no matter how they come?

Pastors and elders must proactively lead their people into this reality. Church members must become aware of it. Small groups must talk about it. Parents of disabled children must testify to God’s help and purposes in it. Our care for these couples is a race against the abortion agenda.

It is too late for Jennifer McKenna Morbelli and her baby Madison.

We pray that God would use this horrible story to expose the evil of abortion once and for all.

Until then, will you help save the little Madison — and her parents — God has placed in front of you?