Sept 23, 2021
BBC
A woman with Down's syndrome has lost her High Court challenge over a law that allows abortion up to birth for a foetus with the condition.
Heidi Crowter, 26, from Coventry, brought the case against the government in July, saying the legislation did not respect her life.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-58662846
Aborting a fetus with Down’s syndrome says nothing about how society views disabled people. It is a matter of choice.
ANN FUREDI, Spiked
9th July 2021
Heidi Carter is a talented and able young woman. She also has Down’s syndrome. This week she launched a legal challenge which, if successful, would lower the time limit for abortions when there is a high risk of serious disability. Carter believes that it is morally wrong for any woman to decide to end her pregnancy to avoid the birth of a child with disabilities or genetic conditions.
In 2020, almost 300 women who had abortions stated Down’s syndrome as the primary reason. For these women, and for others where a serious fetal anomaly is indicated, there is no time limit. Heidi Carter believes this is offensive to people with disabilities – and she is entitled to hold that view. As a person with a disability she has insight into what it feels like to have that disability. But it gives her no authority to stand in judgement on pregnant women’s decisions.
Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/07/09/heidi-carter-should-not-judge-pregnant-womens-decisions/
Heidi Carter's attempt to change the Abortion Act threatens women's reproductive rights.
Ella Whelan, Spiked
7th July 2021
Heidi Carter is a 24-year-old woman with Down’s syndrome. She is currently taking the UK health secretary Sajid Javid to court in an effort to change the 1967 Abortion Act.
Carter and her team want to take away the option women currently have to abort a pregnancy after 24 weeks in cases of non-fatal disabilities. Her supporters are framing this as a battle for the rights of disabled people. This is misleading. It should be understood as an attempt to limit the choice and freedoms of 34million women.
Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/07/07/disabilities-activists-are-waging-war-on-womens-freedom/
Lynn Murray from Edinburgh is a spokesperson for Down Syndrome charity Don’t Screen Us Out and mum of Rachel who has the condition.
By Shona Elliott
Wednesday, 7th July 2021
The campaigning parent has given her support to Heidi Crowter from Coventry who is challenging abortion law at the UK High Court.
Ms Crowter, 26, is taking legal action against the UK Government with the support of Maire Lea-Wilson, 33 whose son Aidan also has the condition.
Heidi Crowter alongside Máire Lea-Wilson and her son Aidan argue the 1967 act is discriminatory
Haroon Siddique, Legal affairs correspondent
Tue 6 Jul 2021
Allowing pregnancy terminations up to birth if the foetus has Down’s syndrome is discriminatory and stigmatises disabled people, the high court has heard.
Heidi Crowter, a 26-year-old woman with Down’s syndrome from Coventry, Máire Lea-Wilson, 33, and her son Aidan, who has Down’s syndrome, who both live in Brentford, west London are challenging Sajid Javid over the Abortion Act 1967. The act sets a 24-week time limit for abortions unless there is “substantial risk” of the child being “seriously handicapped”.
'I will not tolerate it,’ says Heidi Carter, 24, whose team is demanding an end to terminations up to delivery
Sian Griffiths, Education Editor
Sunday July 04 2021
Heidi Carter will celebrate her first wedding anniversary today. She can tell you the birthdate of any celebrity and has called her Facebook page Living the Dream. Her mother, Liz Crowter, describes her as “an absolute joy”.
But when Crowter gave birth to Heidi, the third of her four children, she was initially upset to learn that her baby had Down’s syndrome. “We really struggled to accept the diagnosis and to love Heidi as we did the others,” said Crowter, 55. “We were told when she was being treated in hospital in the early weeks that she would not survive. It was at those times we realised we did love her and wanted her to come home with us. Now we can’t imagine life without her.”
May 5, 2021
Campaigners are set to have a review of abortion law relating to Down's syndrome heard at the High Court.
Heidi Carter, of Coventry, and Máire
Lea-Wilson from Brentford, west London, are challenging the government over a
clause in the current law which allows abortion for up to birth for a foetus
with Down's syndrome.
Mrs Carter, 25, who has the condition, said the current law is "not
fair".
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-56982646
Under bill signed by the governor, doctors can in some cases face felony charges for performing the procedure
Associated Press
Wed 28 Apr 2021
Arizona’s governor has signed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that bans the procedure if the woman is seeking it solely because a fetus has a genetic abnormality such as Down’s syndrome.
Doctors who perform an abortion solely because the child has a survivable genetic issue can face felony charges. The proposal also contains a range of other provisions sought by abortion opponents.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/27/arizona-anti-abortion-bill-downs-syndrome
Opinion by Melissa Murray
April 18, 2021
A federal appeals court last week allowed an Ohio law to take effect that bars doctors from performing abortions on women who choose to end their pregnancies because the fetus has Down syndrome. The law presents a head-on challenge to the right to abortion that could soon land at the Supreme Court — this time interlaced with sensitive questions of race and eugenics.
Such intrusive “reason bans,” which have been enacted around the country, are controversial — and almost immediately challenged — because they prohibit abortion before fetal viability. Most courts have applied the Supreme Court’s long-standing precedents to strike down such bans.
The ruling means the conservative Supreme Court may be able to decide the Constitution does not protect a woman’s ability to have an abortion.
April 16, 2021
By Jessica Levinson, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction against an Ohio law that makes it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion if the doctor knows or has reason to believe that a Down syndrome diagnosis, or the possibility of such a diagnosis, influenced the woman’s decision to seek an abortion.
The court ruled 9 to 7 to reverse two lower court decisions that had blocked the 2017 law from going into effect.
Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-promise-overturn-roe-v-wade-may-still-come-n1264268
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