UK – Parents call for abortion law change

June 3, 2024
Kris Holland & Sam Read, BBC News, Northamptonshire

A couple who have a daughter with Down's syndrome called for a change in the law on abortion. Steve and Natalie, from Northampton, said the birth of Verity, 15 months ago, had changed their view on the current legislation.

At the moment, pregnancies which involved foetuses with Down's syndrome could be terminated up to the point of birth. The couple want legislation for Down's syndrome amended so that it is in line with the 24-week cut-off for standard pregnancies, which Natalie said was "about equality".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wwejn2kxlo

03.06.2024

News

1967 Abortion Act

Antenatal Results and Choices

anti-choice legislation

Down Syndrome

Down's Syndrome

Down's Syndrome Association

UK – Rishi Sunak declines to back MP’s Down’s syndrome abortion law change

March 20, 2024
By Chas Geiger

A call for the government to back a move to outlaw the abortion after 24 weeks of foetuses diagnosed with Down's syndrome has been rejected. Currently, pregnancies involving foetuses with Down's syndrome can be terminated up to the point of birth.

Conservative MP Sir Liam Fox is leading a cross-party campaign to bring the time limit into line with foetuses without serious disabilities. Rishi Sunak said votes on abortion had always been a "matter of conscience".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68617513

20.03.2024

News

1967 Abortion Act

Down Syndrome

Down's Syndrome Association

Heidi Crowter

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act -

Poland’s near-total ban on abortion violated pregnant woman’s rights, finds European court

DEC 14, 2023
Notes from Poland

Poland’s near-total ban on abortion violated the rights of a woman who had to travel abroad to terminate her foetus, which had been diagnosed with Down syndrome, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

It issued the ruling on the basis that three of the judges involved in issuing the 2020 Constitution Tribunal (TK) ruling that toughened the abortion law were appointed in an illegitimate manner by the former Law and Justice (PiS) government and President Andrzej Duda.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/12/14/polands-near-total-ban-on-abortion-violated-pregnant-womans-rights-finds-european-court/

14.12.2023

European Court of Human Rights

Law and Justice party

M.L. in Poland

Mateusz Morawiecki

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

European Court: Polish Abortion Verdict Violated Woman’s Rights

A Polish rights group representing the patient said the ruling "is a milestone and another argument that Polish law, which causes so much suffering for women in Poland, must change."

JESSICA CORBETT
Dec 14, 2023

A court in Europe ruled Thursday that a 2020 Constitutional Tribunal judgment further restricting already limited abortion access in Poland violated a pregnant woman's right to respect for private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The applicant, a Warsaw resident identified in court papers as M.L., became pregnant in 2020. After her fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 21, or Down syndrome, she scheduled an appointment for an abortion at a Polish hospital. However, the Constitutional Tribunal determined that abortions because of fetal abnormalities are unconstitutional, a policy that took effect in January 2021.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/poland-abortion

Alabama mother denied abortion despite fetus’ ‘negligible’ chance of survival

The fetus had Down syndrome and a heart defect, among other complications.

By Nadine El-Bawab
May 2, 2023

Kelly Shannon was excited when she found out she was pregnant. With a daughter under the age of 2, Shannon and her husband had been actively trying for a second child.

The Alabama couple's happiness quickly turned to heartbreak when testing revealed just three days before Christmas there was an 87% chance the baby had Down syndrome.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/alabama-mother-denied-abortion-despite-fetus-negligible-chance/story?id=98962378

02.05.2023

Ireland – Rotunda master says 95% of parents in Down syndrome cases choose abortion

Hospital ‘does not advocate for termination, that is just the lived experience’, says Prof Fergal Malone

Paul Cullen
Mon Dec 26 2022

About 95 per cent of parents whose babies are diagnosed with Down syndrome at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin choose to have an abortion, according to the master of the hospital.

Prof Fergal Malone says the Rotunda strives to be non-directive in its counselling to affected parents. “The 95 per cent who choose to travel do reach that decision themselves. We very much do not advocate for termination,” he said. “The reality is that the vast majority choose to terminate. I don’t have a view on whether that is the right thing. We don’t advocate for it, that is just the lived experience.”

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2022/12/26/rotunda-master-says-95-of-parents-of-babies-diagnosed-with-down-syndrome-choose-abortion/

26.12.2022

UK – Woman with Down’s syndrome loses abortion law appeal

Nov 25, 2022
By Hayley Clarke, BBC News

A woman with Down's syndrome has lost her appeal over a law that allows abortion up until birth for a foetus with the condition.

Heidi Crowter, 27, from Coventry said she was "angry that the judges say my feelings do not matter".

Judges at the Court of Appeal decided the Abortion Act did not interfere with the rights of the living disabled.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-63744073

Woman with Down’s syndrome loses court of appeal abortion law case

Heidi Crowter argued that the law was discriminatory and stigmatised disabled people

Matthew Weaver
Fri 25 Nov 2022

A woman with Down’s syndrome has lost a court of appeal challenge over late-stage abortions of foetuses with certain health conditions.

Heidi Crowter, who brought the case alongside Máire Lea-Wilson, whose son Aidan also has Down’s syndrome, had argued that allowing pregnancy terminations up to birth if the foetus has the condition is discriminatory and stigmatises disabled people./

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/25/heidi-crowter-woman-downs-syndrome-loses-court-of-appeal-abortion-law-case

25.11.2022

Justice Peter Jackson

Disability & Abortion: The Hardest Choice review – this intelligent documentary deserved two episodes

It’s a moving and nuanced exploration of the law on terminating pregnancies involving foetal abnormalities. But this show needed another instalment to really do justice to its topic

Frances Ryan
Mon 22 Aug 2022

In the opening scenes of Disability and Abortion: The Hardest Choice (Channel 4) we are getting to know our hosts, the actors Ruth Madeley and Ruben Reuter. Reuter, who has Down’s syndrome, is loved up with his girlfriend and enjoying his own flat. Madeley, who has spina bifida, goes for cocktails with the girls and has a Bafta nomination. The purpose is clear: any viewer who believes that the lives of disabled people are not worth living should re-evaluate their prejudice. It is an important, albeit simplified, point and in many ways sums up the challenge ahead for the film-makers: boiling a highly complex ethical debate into a one-hour mainstream vehicle.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/aug/22/disability-abortion-the-hardest-choice-review-this-intelligent-documentary-deserved-two-episodes

22.08.2022