A Democrat in Massachusetts who called for special needs children to be aborted has resigned after facing backlash.

Framingham Democratic party chair Michael Hugo said the quiet part out loud during a February city council meeting where members voted on a measure to protect "abortion care" for "pregnant people."

The measure also condemned crisis pregnancy centers for providing "misleading" information that might dissuade women from getting abortions.

The proclamation passed unanimously, but Hugo, who was representing the Framingham Democrats, caused a storm of controversy when he explained why Democrats were opposed to crisis pregnancy centers.

Democrat's ghoulish comments

Hugo alleged that crisis pregnancy centers employ substandard ultrasound technicians, which may cause pregnant women to give birth to children with serious defects that go undetected.

He then appeared to say that special needs children should be killed in the womb to spare the town the cost of educating them.

“Our fear is that if an unqualified sonographer misdiagnoses a heart defect, an organ defect, spina bifida, that becomes a very local issue because our school budget will have to absorb the cost of a child in special education, supplying lots of services to children, who were born with the defect,” Hugo said.

Feigning outrage

While Hugo said nothing that would appear to be inconsistent with what Democrats believe and preach every single day, his fellow Democrats made a display of being outraged by his comments.

The Framingham Democrats disavowed Hugo's statements as "harmful, misleading, and wrong," saying they "did not accurately reflect the vote of the full Framingham Democratic Committee."

A vote was held on a motion to consider removing Hugo from leadership, which he survived. But he ultimately decided to resign, saying the controversy had become distracting.

"I have decided that my resignation is necessary to eliminate any distraction from the important work of the local Democratic Committee, as well as the State Party," he said.

Something to hide?

Hugo resigned as chair but will remain a member of the committee. He had earlier apologized for his comments and even said he is the father of a disabled child.

State Rep. Jack Lewis (D) said he urged Hugo to step down and that his remarks were "fabricating a tension that doesn't exist" between the disabled and abortion supporters.

It sounds like Hugo's fellow Democrats don't want to acknowledge the ghoulish reality of what they support. After all, if one accepts that abortion is a "fundamental right," as Framingham's adopted resolution reads, then there is no reason in principle to object to aborting special needs children.

It's absurd, when you think about it -- why would Democrats punish one of their members for espousing what the party believes? It's almost like they're trying to hide something.