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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, be honest with yourself here. Are you basically implying your sister should not be allowed to be a parent? Are you interested in having her baby taken away?

Your posts and attitude toward your sister are very harsh. You make excuses for everyone else, but her; in particular when discussing your parents. You also imply that your decision to not have a baby is right and her decision to have one is wrong.

Persons with disabilities, including mental ones, have parenting and constitutional rights. How do you know she won’t be a good parent, and doesn’t have a good support system? Because she hasn’t even had the baby yet. You don’t know. Just like you don’t know someone without bipolar and who has a cleaning driving record would be a good one.

Disabled people have been discriminated against for parenting since forever. Instead of shaming and shaking your head at your sister’s decisions, instead of having eugenic views about who should and should not be allowed to parent, why not support her, why not help her, why not educate yourself. Worried about her being a parent and having bipolar, talk to other bipolar parents. Worried about her driving, offer to pay for her Ubers or suggest driving lesson, etc.

The snap judgment that she shouldn’t be a mother is wrong. Plus that ship has sailed, she’s pregnant. And implying she shouldn’t have parenting rights is also wrong. It’s people like you that want babies taken from disabled mothers in the hospital by CPS. Shameful.

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You have no clue what you're talking about. I'm not OP, but I am parenting a child with special needs, and I had to deal with mental illness in adult relatives, and indeed in my own spouse. Sometimes the "rights" they have end up hurting them, and hurting other innocent people. This isn't a question of respect, it's not a moral debate, it's a very pragmatic question of protecting an innocent life, the baby's, from the worse of their mother's instincts.

I would say "shame on you" for blaming OP who is trying to help... but I'd rather educate you than shame you. I hope you will never have to live what I and OP and others have had to go through.

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I am physically, permanently disabled, so your rights don’t trump mine. I’m sorry for your situation which sounds very stressful and hard for you. But just because of what is happening for you it has no bearing on hypothetically what could happen to this unborn baby. No one has any idea what kind of mother the sister will be. I, and she, have a constitutional, fundamental right to build a family. We also have 14th amendment due process rights (the exact ones that are being argued in the current roe v wade debate). The facts still remain: this woman has not given birth and there is zero track record of how she will be as a mother, and there is no evidence she is harming the baby in the womb such as using drugs/alcohol, etc. What people like her and her future child need are the support networks to allow BOTH of them to thrive. How do you know she isn’t thriving now?  Because of what has happened to you?  Or me?  Neither of us know. The baby is coming, let’s give them a chance.

I hope you never have to live my life either.  I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But don’t dismiss my rights. I’ve had my 14th amendment rights trampled over plenty of times as a person with a disability (access to healthcare, education, parenting rights, accessibility).  Trust me, this is not something to just dismiss.  [/quote]

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