Massachusetts Democrat's 'eugenic view' on special needs kids blasted by activists: 'Prenatal execution'
Special needs advocate Kurt Kondrich called Hugo's language 'beyond offensive and evil'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Parents and special needs advocates called for a Framingham, Massachusetts, Democratic official to resign after he made inflammatory remarks relaying his views on children with disabilities, suggesting they should have been aborted instead.
Framingham Democratic Committee Chair Michael Hugo, during a February 7 city council meeting, attacked crisis pregnancy centers and voiced fear that an "unqualified sonographer" could misdiagnose certain defects in unborn babies, including heart or organ defects.
"[If that happens], 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 the children who are born with the defects…" he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRAT TOLD TO STEP DOWN AFTER ABORTION COMMENTS LEAVE PARENTS IRATE
Michael Hugo, a local democratic official in Framingham, MA questioned the costs of children with special needs. (BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America/SFLAction, slammed Hugo's "eugenic view" Sunday on "Fox & Friends Weekend," telling Pete Hegseth that the idea has been around for some time.
"This is Democrats saying the quiet part out loud," she said. "I hear these eugenic, discriminatory comments every single time I step onto a college campus in America today, and it is absolutely astounding how the eugenics movement that created Planned Parenthood, this movement that said certain people shouldn't have the right to be born, still continues today in 2023 America."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Special needs advocate Kurt Kondrich called Hugo's language "beyond offensive and evil."
"What he doesn't understand is the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) guarantees children with special needs a free and appropriate education," he said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A flier for the protest planned in Framingham, MA in response to Michael Hugo's comments about abortion that left parents irate. (Facebook.)
"Identifying, targeting and eliminating a human being because they don't pass a test is the ultimate form of discrimination, bigotry, profiling, hatred…"
Kondrich, whose daughter has Down syndrome, called special needs-specific abortions "prenatal execution" of people who "don't meet the cultural criteria of what perfection is."
Hugo apologized for his remarks after uproar simmered for days, writing on February 10: "I am writing to offer my sincere and humble apology to members of the Framingham Democratic Committee, but more especially my fellow members of Framingham's disability family community."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Michael Hugo voiced concerns that a sonogrpaher could misdiagnose unborn babies who have defects. (iStock)
Responding to the apology, Hawkins said a "real apology" would mean reassessing his view that women should be denied access to free pregnancy resources.
"He was there speaking out against free pregnancy centers because he didn't want certain babies to be born… Until Michael Hugo reassesses his view of abortion and drops his eugenic view that some people don't have the right to be born based on their genetic code, based on the perceptions of abilities, then it's not a real apology," she said.
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