To listen to McMorris Rodgers is to grasp the sincerity of her convictions and the depth of her love. So I write not to add offense but to suggest, respectfully, that while McMorris Rodgers’s choice was the right one for her and her family, it would not have been the right one for me and mine — nor for many others who reached out with their stories, both about living with relatives with Down syndrome and terminating such pregnancies.

“I had a sweet, lovely sister with Down syndrome for many years who I loved dearly,” one reader emailed. “I would say on balance that it was a strong if not dominating factor in our family and our individual lives. It took a toll. It consumed our priorities. . . . After my father died prematurely, it left my mother with four kids, one handicapped, and only one income.

“In balance, having seen it up close and lived with it myself, I would support a mother who chose NOT to give birth to a Down syndrome child. And if you haven’t lived it you can have NO idea what you are proposing for other people. Hence, each person has and MUST have the right to decide for themselves.”