Democratic Chair Under Fire After Suggesting 'Eugenics' Plan to Reduce Special Ed Students
A Massachusetts Democrat has been caught saying the left’s quiet part about abortion out loud with his cruel suggestion that special needs babies should be aborted in the womb, so government schools can save money at a later date.
Michael Hugo, the chair of the Framingham Democratic Committee, is taking major heat, and rightfully so, for a shocking recommendation that the city use abortion to save money in school budgets.
Hugo delivered his horrific suggestion during a Feb. 7 Framingham city council meeting, where he spoke up about a draft proclamation concerning the city’s support for unfettered access to abortion at any time, for any reason. The proclamation denounced crisis pregnancy centers where at risk women are urged to choose life, labeled these centers “misleading” and “deceptive,” and claimed they dole out “false medical claims.”
But the Democratic committee chair had far more to say than that which appears in the anti-life proclamation. In his comments aimed at supporting the proclamation, Hugo proffered the eugenics-based policy of killing babies that may suffer disabilities after birth.
Hugo began his personal proclamation saying that he was “speaking on behalf of the Framingham Democratic Committee,” and said it is the committee’s duty to “work for the common good by promoting racial, ethnic, social, and economic equality for the people of Framingham,” the New York Post reported.
During his comments, Hugo went on to say that crisis pregnancy centers are a threat to Framingham because in some cases they might prevent women from aborting babies that will be born with special needs. Hugo further claimed that people with special needs are a financial burden on the system.
“Our fear is that if an unqualified sonographer [at a CPC] misdiagnoses a heart defect, an organ defect, spina bifida or encephalopathic defect, that becomes a very local issue, because our school budget would have to absorb the cost of the child in our special education budget,” Hugo said, according to The Blaze.
Hugo had sent the text of his remarks to the council ahead of time. And in that written statement, he asked if the state would “cover the medical costs for a fetus that had sound medical reason to be terminated,” the Daily Mail reported.
He also asked if the state or city council “would cover the costs of special education for a Down syndrome-affected child” or “pay the extraordinary medical expense of a child with a (serious heart condition)” and implied that such children should be aborted before those expenses are realized.
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According to the Post, Hugo then wondered, “How much does Framingham’s Public School Department pay for unreimbursed special needs school transportation, specialized education and durable supplies?”
These outrageous and heartless comments were widely criticized not only by local residents, but even members of his own, anti-life party.
One woman, who is the mother of a special needs child, felt as if Hugo was targeting her quite directly.
“I saw what Michael had said as a personal attack against my own children,” said Sheryl Goldstein, the chair of the Framingham Disabilities Commission, according to Fox News. “That my children who had special needs were not worth the expense in the school system.”
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life and mother of two special-needs children, was aghast at Hugo’s statements, saying that his policy suggestion was no less than “eugenics,” the Post reported.
“This is discrimination plain and simple,” Hawkins exclaimed. “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.”
“This is eugenics. This is eugenics in 2023 America. This is an argument that sadly we’ve heard before and throughout American history, just regurgitated using a bunch of fancy lingo or support for abortion,” Hawkins said.
Jon Fetherston, a special needs advocate, said he was shocked by Hugo’s heartless comments.
“As a parent of an autistic child, I read those comments and go ‘What?'” Fetherston said. “A peer of mine thinks that I should’ve aborted my child because he was going to be a burden to a school budget?”
Another critic, former Framingham School Committee member Pat Dunne, even blasted Hugo’s comments during the meeting saying that he had gone “off the rails” with his policy suggestion.
“I’m a lifetime member of the Democratic Committee, and the person who wanted to represent us went off the rails on a different direction that was never brought before the Democratic Committee,” Dunne said, the Post added. “We’re not talking about eliminating special education students and the like. We’re talking about getting out good information to the people in Framingham. And he’s casting a bit too wide for me, and that’s why I did want to say something.”
Hugo eventually posted an apology letter and claimed that the other members of the committee did not see the text of his prepared comments even though he sent it out the night before the meeting. He also admitted that is words were “offensive and hurtful.”
“I am writing to offer my most sincere and humble apology to members of the Framingham Democratic Committee, but more especially my fellow members of Framingham’s disability family community, for comments that I made at the last City Council meeting which were offensive and hurtful,” Hugo wrote.
Laura Green, a disability advocate in Framingham, was not convinced by the apology letter.
“I feel that it was generic and lackluster. I feel like after a statement like that is made, you can’t just pretend that it didn’t happen or take it back because it’s damaging to a community of people,” Green said. “The disability community is the only minority group that you can become a part of at any time.”
Despite the mounting calls for his resignation, Hugo has insisted that he has no intentions of vacating his political job as FDC chairman. He is also reportedly the director of policy and government affairs for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. And just think, in that latter position he is just where he needs to be to push for the abortions of special needs children.
Hawkins, though, is 100 percent correct. This is no less than a policy of eugenics meant to weed out those Hugo feels are undesirable. And we already know such policies lead to the mass extermination of an ever-widening group of people cast into that category as advocates continue to find even more people that they feel need to be labeled as undesirables.
Every life has value. To think otherwise is to suggest that “value” is so subjective that no life really has any value at all.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
