Democrat Faces Backlash For Pro-Abortion Rant Targeting Disabled Children

For Americans who have heard the increasingly radical pro-abortion views of the modern Democratic Party in recent years, it might be hard to believe that a leftist politician could say something outrageous enough to warrant a public apology — but that is the situation that one Massachusetts official is in.

According to reports, Framingham Democratic Committee Chairman Michael Hugo couched his support for abortion in a statement that seemed to blame pro-life crisis pregnancy centers for allowing disabled babies to become a burden to the system.

“Our fear is that if an unqualified sonographer misdiagnoses a heart defect, an organ defect, spina bifida, or an encephalopathic defect that becomes a very local issue because our school budget will have to absorb the cost of a child in special education, supplying lots and lots of special services to children who were born with the defect,” Hugo complained.

He soon faced backlash from political figures and pro-life advocates across the region — including Kristan Hawkins.

In addition to serving as the president of the group Students for Life, Hawkins has two special needs children and described Hugo’s position as “discrimination, plain and simple.”

She went on to share her belief that “people who say that the sick cost too much money for our society better find the fountain of youth real quick because some day that’s going to be them — it’s going to be their family members.”

Framingham Disabilities Commission Chairperson Sheryl Goldstein was similarly incensed. 

“I saw what Michael had said as a personal attack against my own children — that my children who had special needs were not worth the expense in the school system,” she said.

Hugo acknowledged the criticism and claimed that the local Democratic Party did not “see or review” his comments prior to the Feb. 7 city council meeting during which he delivered them. The remarks were included in a summary of the meeting that was distributed the previous evening, though.

He apologized 10 days after the meeting for the “offensive and hurtful” statement, but that was not enough for some of his most ardent critics. Special needs advocate Jon Fetherston, for example, called on Hugo to “immediately step down.”

Hawkins also called for Hugo’s removal, asserting that his offensive rhetoric “hopefully woke up a lot of people to their support of abortion.”