06/07/2026
The public backlash against the couple who chose to terminate their pregnancy is pure performance-based outrage. Many people fundamentally misunderstand what choice means in a world that is deeply hostile to disability.
Before I say what I’m about to say, I want to make clear that people with disabilities are in every single profession. We have been presidents, lawyers, doctors, pilots, chefs, moms, dads, teachers, drivers, and engineers. We have done it all, and none of it is because of the people screaming foul. We got there through tears, sadness, anger, and sheer tenacity.
But this post is not about the amazing things we can do. Since you want to make demands, let’s talk about all the ways you fail us.
Where were you when we needed you?
There is a bunch of legislation for people with disabilities that lacked your sponsorship or support.
There are many bills protecting service animals that you didn’t protect.
Where was this support a couple of years ago during the rally demanding that disabled people with service animals actually get picked up by rideshares? I noticed we only had a few allies; the support came mostly from within our own community.
As a former child with a disability and now a disabled adult, I see exactly where this public outrage fails us.
My mother had a middle school education, zero resources, and was a survivor of unspeakable trauma.
She did the absolute best she could, raising eight children by herself as a single mother. She had to fight against a system that is fundamentally racist and sexist. Because she was forced to work multiple odd jobs just to keep food on the table, she couldn't learn English or show up to my IEP meetings. Let me be entirely clear: that was not abuse. That was a mother doing everything humanly possible to keep her family alive.
Because of those systemic failures, I was left behind, forced to drop out of school, and had to grow up at hyper-speed to catch up when I arrived in the United States as a refugee.
To everyone demanding that this couple should have carried the pregnancy to term: you want to police someone else's body, but you are completely blind to the reality of what happens after birth.
Where is the outrage when we are actually alive? School staff take their frustrations out on students with disabilities under the guise of teaching self-advocacy and parents and caregivers aren’t there to witness it. That teaching consists of grown adults yelling at quiet kids with a disability(s) for failing to meet expectations. Where was the support or the public outrage then?
It only seems to matter when people want to feel good about policing other people's reproductive decisions.
Society loves disabled kids when they can use us for inspiration, but the second we become adults, we are told to shut up and sit down. Here is the reality we face:
1. Our unemployment rate is double that of the general public. If you are so outraged by a termination, where are your offer letters to hire us?
2. We face a violent crime rate that is four times higher than the general public.
3. Our homelessness rate is two and a half times higher than the general public.
4. Between 18% and 36% of homicides against disabled people are committed by family members or caregivers.
Every single day, we pay a massive social and financial tax just to exist in a world that was not built for us. We are routinely denied access to restaurants, jobs, and basic transportation while Uber and Lyft drivers pass us by. People tell us to use paratransit, but paratransit consistently provides demeaning, and broken treatment to people with disabilities, no matter what country you are in.
This couple looked at a world with zero safety nets, recognized their limits, and made a responsible decision.
As a former child with a disability and now an adult, I’m glad they knew their limits and listened to that. Even when resources are given, there is a huge tax that comes with being a person with a disability, and the very people screaming foul are responsible for it.
You are not mad because a wrong was committed; you are mad because you lost the power to police someone else's body.
Just like when parent’s with disabilities had children, and your response to that beautiful moment is to take their children away from them.
If you are not standing right next to us when we are being denied jobs, rides, and basic human dignity, save your fake outrage. You care about the pregnancy, but you clearly do not care about the life.
Yes, we are capable of things that just anybody can do, but it’s not because of most of the people screaming foul. It’s because of the support from within the community and a few out of it who want to see us succeed.
Until you understand the entirety of this, maybe sit this one out.
Also, eugenics is a system forced by governments, this was a choice a couple made. The closest thing to eugenics is not what this couple is doing. It’s the systemic force removal of children from parents with disabilities.
 what you need to be doing is fighting for our rights alongside us whether parents choose to have us or not.
Picture Description: Afron, is sitting in the back of a car, smiling brightly.
She’s wearing a deep red, sparkly hijab that frames her face, and her medium‑dark brown skin is softly lit.
Her eyes are gently squinted in a happy way, and her glossy lips and visible teeth make her smile the clear focus of the photo.


