A Little Something Extra

Monday, April 14, 2008

March For Babies

We're coming up on the annual March for Babies fundraiser for the March of Dimes. We're not able to walk in our local event. But if you're interested in helping out the March of Dimes, please consider sponsoring our little buddy, Chase. Chase's dad, Jason, went to grad school with Mark. Chase's mom, Elizabeth, has been a great encourager to me. They live in Charlotte. Would you consider sponsoring Chase's team? Just link here. If you'd like to read a bit more about Chase, you can visit their family's blog. Chase was born last fall at 26 1/2 weeks and he's doing great, thanks in part to research done by the March of Dimes. The goal of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. We received a lot of helpful information from the March of Dimes while Micah was in the NICU.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As the mom of a child with Down syndrome I have mixed emotions about the March of Dimes. While I appreciate all they do...I do not appreciate their Pro Abortion stance. They are in favor of prenatal testing to prevent Down syndrome...which really bothers me. But, I guess they still do a lot of good too.

Jennie said...

I've been unable to find any documentation supporting your statement. Could you please share where you found your information? This is what I found on the March of Dimes website:
Most parents-to-be receive reassuring news from a screening or diagnostic test for Down syndrome. However, if a prenatal diagnostic test shows that the baby has Down syndrome, parents have an opportunity to prepare medically, emotionally and financially for the birth of a child with special needs, such as arranging for delivery in a medically appropriate setting.

As far as I can tell, they support prenatal testing for preparation for a baby's birth, not for termination purposes.

Anonymous said...

Yes, there was quite an uproar and they took the part about "prevention" off their website quite a while ago. Only those of us who were already around at the time remember it. Many pro life groups still boycott and refuse to donate to them.

If you just go to google.com and search for march of dimes abortion...plenty of things will come up.

http://www.pregnantpause.org/people/modppf.htm

http://www.pregnantpause.org/people/mod3.htm

http://www.lifeissues.org/marchofdimes/mod574.html

http://www.lifeissues.org/marchofdimes/index.html

Not criticizing your support of them. I just made a hefty donation to them before I knew about this....I was quite upset when I found out. I am very picky about who I donate to... so this bothered me. Just thought I should let you know.

Anonymous said...

The links I attempted to leave you are the first 4-5 that come up when you search as I instructed.

(Sorry, I'm not real great with computers.)

Jennie said...

Well, doesn't that stink. Unfortunately, though, that just doesn't leave us with any good "options" if we want to fund an organization that does a lot to prevent prematurity.

As soon as I have some time, I'll do a post on the meat of this issue. There's a lot more to consider with this one than just whether or not to support the March of Dimes (which, I believe, does a lot of good work).

Thanks for your comments. I'll definitely do some more research.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree with you. Like I said, I just wanted to make sure you had the information to make an informed decision is all.

It's kind of like the presidential candidates. You have to choose between one who is pro abortion but does a lot to help people with disabilities...or one that is anti abortion but does nothing to help people with disabilities.

Sometimes you have to support organizations that you may not totally agree with. At least they do help with prematurity. I had a 30 week baby in addition to my child with DS, so I know about that too.

I also have a sister with Multiple Sclerosis. I support Montel William's MS Foundation instead of the National MS Society. The simple reason is that all of Montel's donations go to research because he pays the expenses out of pocket. The NMSS can't afford to do that. It's nothing personal...I just want my donation to go straight to research.

My husband is kind of a tightwad with money which is why I research these things so much.... lol

Your kids are gorgeous by the way. I hope that things continue to go well for you Thank you for having an open mind.