{"id":38821,"date":"2018-12-31T05:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T10:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=38821"},"modified":"2018-12-30T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T01:18:13","slug":"38821","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/12\/38821\/","title":{"rendered":"The Late Bre Payton on Protecting Down Syndrome Babies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am saddened at the death of Bre Payton<\/a>, one of my students at Patrick Henry College<\/a>, who became a superstar writer at The Federalist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>She died suddenly from swine flu.\u00a0 She was only 26!<\/p>\n

I appreciate the tributes she is receiving, including writeups in the New York Times<\/em>, BBC<\/em>, CNN<\/em>, and Fox<\/em>.\u00a0 (See especially what her Federalist<\/em> colleagues have to say about her:\u00a0this<\/a> and this<\/a>.)\u00a0 She was a fine example of a Christian who lived out her faith in vocation.\u00a0 For my tribute, I want to focus on her writing, which was always incisive, insightful, compassionate, funny when appropriate, and tough-minded when dismantling bad ideas.<\/p>\n

\n

For a list of her contributions to The Federalist <\/em>and a link to each one,\u00a0go here<\/a>.\u00a0 It goes on for page after page.\u00a0 You will see her political commentary, her critiques of fellow journalists, her coverage of pop culture, her skewering of establishment hypocrisy, her pro-life advocacy, her open Christian faith.\u00a0 I also appreciate seeing her build on the classical education we gave her at Patrick Henry, writing about such topics as Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and the Peloponnesian War.<\/p>\n

In her honor, read this piece she wrote on the connection between the pro-abortion movement and eugenics, taking on a well-known Washington Post<\/em> columnist.<\/p>\n

Bre Payton,\u00a0Allowing Abortion For Down Syndrome Babies Puts All The Vulnerable At Risk:<\/a><\/p>\n

Unborn babies with Down Syndrome deserve legal protections, because allowing them to be systematically eliminated in the womb is barbaric and puts other \u201cgenetically undesirable\u201d people groups at risk.<\/p>\n

In a recent\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0column,\u00a0Ruth Marcus argues<\/a>\u00a0that laws in Ohio, North Dakota, and Louisiana \u2014 where a woman cannot abort her baby solely because he or she has Down Syndrome \u2014 might usher in an era where doctors and legislators thought-police women and force them to carry and bear children like in the award-winning Hulu show \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale,\u201d based on a novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood.<\/p>\n

Marcus argues a woman ought to be able to access an abortion for any reason she chooses because allowing the state to choose what reasons justify an abortion is constitutionally questionable. While I agree that lawmakers should [not] invade a woman\u2019s brain, protecting a class of people from being systematically aborted is necessary in a country where the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not dependent upon one\u2019s genetic makeup.<\/p>\n

The uncomfortable reality is that the abortion industry and the pro-choice movement in America have a history steeped in eugenics. Planned Parenthood\u2019s founder, Margaret Sanger, was a favorite of the Klu Klux Klan and an\u00a0open supporter of Nazi sterilization laws.<\/a>\u00a0In 1934, she went as far as to write a federal law that would regulate who was legally allowed to bear children.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A teacher has no higher satisfaction than seeing a student do well.\u00a0 Bre was a student who did well, not just in her meteoric success in her major of political journalism, but in her thinking, her personality, and her\u00a0 faith.\u00a0 I am proud of her.\u00a0 That she is now translated into a better language, as John Donne put it, makes me even prouder.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Bre Payton as student, Patrick Henry College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am saddened at the death of Bre Payton, one of my students at Patrick Henry College, who became a superstar writer at The Federalist.\u00a0\u00a0She died suddenly from swine flu.\u00a0 She was only 26! I appreciate the tributes she is receiving, including writeups in the New York Times, BBC, CNN, and Fox.\u00a0 (See especially what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":38824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,27,28,29,34,48],"tags":[5712,5711,7888,1208,1677,7342],"class_list":["post-38821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-life-issues","category-literature","category-media","category-personal","category-vocation","tag-aborting-down-syndrome-children","tag-abortion-and-eugenics","tag-bre-payton","tag-journalism","tag-patrick-henry-college","tag-vocation-of-journalism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Late Bre Payton on Protecting Down Syndrome Babies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bre Payton, the superstar journalist who died at the age of 26, was one of my students. 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