Woman with disability bullied online for having a baby

Image credit: Sydney Bennett via Instagram

A woman with a disability has shared on social media a series of bullying and discriminatory comments she has received from people online because she had a baby.

According to her website, Sydney Anne Bennett was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) after she experienced increasing pain over her body, which eventually led to moments of paralysis and seizures. Within months she went from being completely mobile to being in a wheelchair.

Shortly after her diagnosis, her husband was deployed overseas and she was able to learn how to navigate her disability by herself. She went on to graduate college in May 2024, and has also welcomed a little girl, Hadassah, with her husband.

Bennett said she created an Instagram account, @the.annegirl, “as a way to process what was happening to me and encourage others who found themselves struggling with disability or chronic pain. I never expected it to reach the audience and community that it has – the friends I have found there have blessed me just as much as I hope I bless them!”

“I want others to know that it IS possible to find confidence, hope, and courage after disability,” she added.

However, after sharing about her motherhood on her Instagram page, she has been subject to some bullying and discriminatory comments from people because she had a baby when she’s disabled.

In a video that began with the text “It’s 2024 and people are still not ready for a disabled woman to have a baby”, she compiled some of the comments she received which included “Have you tried protection?” from one person and “Not everyone has to have the right to have a child,” from another.

Other comments she received were: “Why would somebody in a wheelchair ‘make’ a disabled baby?”

“Did the baby come out w a wheelchair too?”

“Just why. Just imagine no disabled only abled.”

“If she really cared she would have adopted a child in need. But nope she has to prove to everyone she’s not a broken human nope she has prove she can be a mom to !!! … Disability Pregnancy PEAK narcissism.”

“Breed week stock get weak stock facts are facts”

“How dare you allow disabled to pass it onto a kid. you are sickeningly naive.”

“It’s just common sense. it is stupid honestly a form of abuse to bear children with chronic disability when you knew fully well they would also inherit it.”

“Poor baby”

“But why would you reproduce, knowing your condition?”

“This is wrong on so many level…”

“Worst childhood. That poor baby is in for a hellish life.”

“Honestly, disabled people shouldn’t be having kids.”

“Why make more disabled people”

“Humans are just selfish”

“Some corrections to the things assumed here:” Bennett began in the caption for her video. “My illness is not hereditary. My baby is not disabled. My disability is not passed on genetically. BUT ******It must be said*********I know MANY amazing parents with disabilities that have a possibility of being passed on. Some of their children share their disability and some don’t. They’re all amazing parents with wonderful children who have full and beautiful lives and who they love very much.”

She also explained that she and her husband “WANTED to have a baby. Out sweet girl is happy, deeply loved, and loves her life (and her mama’s wheelchair.) My husband is an amazing, faithful man who loves me and Hadassah very much and takes wonderful care of us. I am more than capable of caring for my daughter alone while he is at work. I know my body and my symptoms very well and navigate them fluently. Hadassah has and will have a wonderful life with parents who love her deeply.”

Sandra Parda of the Life Institute said that “it is sad that we have come to a point where people think it is okay to bully someone for becoming a mother because she is disabled. This is outright discrimination. Unfortunately, society has created an attitude that people with disabilities are better off dead. This is far from the truth”

“Ms Bennett’s story shows us that there is value in all lives regardless of how “abled” you are. Motherhood is a beautiful gift and the fact that she is able to enjoy motherhood is something that should be embraced with love and joy.”