Disabled NC child’s image in an abortion post draws fire and a Twitter response

An advocate for children with disabilities got a response from Twitter this week after someone trolled her with a photo of her own severely disabled daughter in an abortion-related post.

Natalie Weaver, a co-founder of Advocates for Medically Fragile Kids NC, asked for help Saturday to report a tweet by user @OBSIDIANSMOAK that included a photo of Weaver’s 9-year-old daughter “as the poster child to abort bc she’s disabled.”

Weaver’s daughter, Sophia, has Rett syndrome – a rare neurological disorder occurring mostly in girls and affecting the ability to speak, walk, eat and breathe.

The tweet that included Sophia’s photo said, “It is okay to think that every child matters however a lot of them do not hence the amnio test which should be a mandatory test and if it proves negative and the woman does not want to abort then all bills accrued after that is on her and the father,” according to Fox News.

In response to Weaver’s initial post, another person pointed out that the options for reporting harmful activity on Twitter did not include discrimination of people with disabilities.

Weaver on Monday tweeted that she received an email from Twitter, saying there was no violation in the use of her daughter’s photo, Fox News reported. That tweet has been deleted.

But later on Monday, Weaver tweeted to thank Twitter, which had suspended the @OBSIDIANSMOAK account and apologized for missing the violation.

The issues didn’t stop there for Weaver, who identified herself as both a Democrat and pro-choice. On Wednesday, she said several media outlets covering her story were twisting the narrative to fit their political agenda.

“If my stance on abortion and political party make you withdraw your support from me & my disabled child, then that is really sad,” Weaver wrote.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 10:35 AM with the headline "Disabled NC child’s image in an abortion post draws fire and a Twitter response."