Religious Disability Advocates Saddened by Marshall's Ugliness

From Disability Concerns (2.23.10):

Virginia State Legislator Says that Disabled Children are Punishment from God

By Mark Stephenson

Long ago, or so I thought, people said that children born with anomalies were warnings to their parents that covenant with the gods had been violated. The Latin word for "to warn" is monere from which comes the English word, "monster." Thus, children (and adults) with disabilities were thought of as monsters to be feared, because they were proof that the gods were angered by violations of their laws.

I had thought that this kind of thinking which turns people with disabilities into monsters was long past. I was wrong. On February 18, a Virginia state legislator, Bob Marshall of Manassas, made the following statement to support his opposition to state funding for abortions through Planned Parenthood. 

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."

I'm saddened that Marshall drags all Christians into this ugly diatribe against children with disabilities...

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