Seventeen parents of children with disabilities gathered last week at a press conference on Capitol Hill to speak out against proposed government health care reform plans. They came from all over the U.S. and Canada to protest possible government interference in the health care system that could mean the difference between life and death for their children by limiting access to doctors and rationing health care.

The parents, many with their children by their side or holding large photos of their loved ones, joined together under the Healthcare for Gunner coalition to let President Barack Obama and Congress know that it will be their children and their families who will suffer and be denied critical care under current proposed legislation. They issued a letter and document on the effects of rationing, and the outcome of government bureaucrats deciding who lives and who dies.

Joined by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the mother of a child with Down syndrome, and Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), born with a cleft palate, they pleaded their cause and presented a horrific picture of a future where the weak, vulnerable, elderly and the unborn are given lowest priority.

“We have to make sure that health care legislation doesn’t leave this important group behind,” said McMorris Rodgers. “We have to make sure that health care reform does three things: improve the health care in America, lower the costs, and help vulnerable persons.”

Franks, whose deceased brother with Down syndrome, warned of the dangers presented by the current health care reform bill, H.R. 3200.

“We run into one reality: the rationing of care because you have to decrease the costs,” said Franks. “There is always, always rationing and restrictions, which fall on the most weak.”

He shared the story of a baby born without a palate, requiring 11 surgeries before the age of 9 to survive. Fed with an eye dropper and a cup, this little baby probably would not have had a chance under a government-run health care system where the weakest are given the lowest priority. Franks was that baby.

“A society is measured by how it cares for those who are down, in the shadows and in the twilight of death,” he said. “Those in the shadows have the greatest things to say and God’s greatest gift is given to them.”

Proposed health care legislation, which includes government-funded abortions, would deliver a profound blow to the pro-life movement.

“This will be the largest expansion of abortions since Roe v. Wade,” Franks said. “This will fall hard upon seniors.”

Dr. Marty McCaffrey, a pediatrician and father of 9-year-old Shea with Down syndrome, traveled from North Carolina with his daughter to send a message to Washington.

“I speak to you today in the hope that we can prevent the destruction of an arguably imperfect but inarguably the best health care system in the world,” McCaffrey said. “We have been assured that that government restructuring of health care will not require rationing. Even a simple neonatologist knows that if you increase demand, the cost for services rises.

“The enrollment of millions of new patients for care while drastically cutting funding requires either reduction of level of services offered everyone and/or limiting those eligible for care,” he said. “Rationing is unavoidable.”

McCaffrey said that all Americans must stand up for what is right.

“Nationalized health care is an attack on life and liberty. I could never imagine the day my president, his advisers and a Supreme Court justice would openly state that some lives are not worth living. … The day has arrived. Our current system can be improved. The answers, however lie in citizen based proposals that decouple employment and insurance, mandate tort reform, provide tax credits for insurance purchase, eliminate state barriers and expand health savings accounts,” McCaffrey said.

The coalition said that the government takeover of health care would be disastrous for the 54.4 million citizens who live with disabilities, as decisions about patient care could be made primarily on cost.

“I want my family and my doctor to control my son’s health care decisions, not a government-appointed committee,” said Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America and founder of Healthcare for Gunner, a coalition named for her 7-month-old son with cystic fibrosis.

“Should President Obama get his way, the life of my son, and millions across the country who are elderly, chronically ill, or require expensive medical treatment, will be at the hands of some bureaucrat in Washington.”

Sam Sansalone, the father of Katya, age 8, with Trisomy 13 — a genetic disorder associated with the presence of extra material from chromosome 13 — traveled from Alberta, Canada, to share his experiences of the nightmares of nationalized medicine.

“We had to face great dangers after her birth in Toronto,” Sansalone said. “Some doctors said she should be left to die. We had to fight to get the life-saving surgery to save her life.

“America is at the crossroads of health care reform,” he said. “People must speak up. They must support only health care plans where ultimate health care decisions can be made by families — it must be family centered health care.”

Canadian Barb Farlow, whose daughter died from Trisomy 13, spoke out about the “do not resuscitate order” placed on her 3-month-old baby that prohibited her emergency care when rushed to the hospital for breathing problems. The baby died as a result.

“Our fundamental parental rights were violated,” said Farlow. “Annie was not a child but a label for our medical system.”

Jeanne Bolewitz, the mother of Joshua with Down syndrome, came to speak out against rationed health care that she witnessed while living in England.

“Rationing will happen just like I witnessed in England when we lived there 10 years ago and I saw rationing for care of MS patients,” said Bolewitz. “People are thought of in medical terms, what you are draining from the system. Joshua will be seen in the dollars he drains from the system. He will no longer be my boy. He’ll be the government’s boy because of the burden he bestows. Our children will be reduced to dollars.”

Find out more

For more information go to healthcareforgunner.com.

Click here for a message from the U.S. bishops on health care reform.