Some are calling for a Massachusetts Democrat to resign after he proclaimed his worries that crisis pregnancy centers may overlook birth defects and consequently strain a school’s budget due to increased special education costs for unaborted children.
The comments came from Framingham Democratic Committee chairman Michael Hugo during a city council meeting on Feb. 7. On the agenda at that moment was a discussion about a proclamation surrounding access to abortion and crisis pregnancy centers in the city, as reported by Just The News.
The Democrat asserted that the centers, which according to Just The News are operated by pro-life groups in order to provide an alternative to abortion clinics, could misdiagnose a fetus with a defect, ergo allowing them to be born and drain school funds.
“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,” he said, per Fox News.
Massachusetts Democrat’s abortion comments leave parents irate:
“Our fear is that if an unqualified sonographer misdiagnoses… that becomes a very local issue because our school budget will have to absorb the cost of a child in special education."pic.twitter.com/ZE8ioOQaWE
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) February 24, 2023
Hugo apologized to the public, saying his comments were “offensive and hurtful.” Despite his backtracking, some have still called for his resignation.
“I think he should immediately step down,” asserted Jon Fetherston, a special needs advocate and registered Massachusetts Republican.
Meanwhile, Sheryl Goldstein, who chairs the Framingham Disabilities Commission, expressed that she saw Hugo’s words as “a personal attack against my own children.”
She added, “That my children who had special needs were not worth the expense in the school system.”
“This is discrimination plain and simple,” Kristan Hawkins, the mother of two disabled children and the president of Students for Life, told Fox. “I think people who say that the sick cost too much for our society better find the fountain of youth real quick because someday that’s going to be them. It’s going to be their family members.”
The Framingham Democratic Committee put out a statement expressing disapproval of Hugo’s comments, saying, “we fully disavow and denounce them.”
“If they disavow and do not support those comments, how do you leave him in charge of your organization?” asked Fetherston, who is the father of an autistic child. “He has an influential position inside the party and if he even thinks that, much less says it in a public meeting, then he shouldn’t be in a leadership position.”
Fox News reported that Neither Hugo nor the Framingham Democratic Committee would respond to its request for comment.
