Woman with Down's syndrome calls for end to full term abortions for the condition
Under UK abortion law, babies prenatally diagnosed with Down Syndrome can be aborted up to full term. Now, a woman with the condition is challenging the current discriminatory abortion law.
Heidi Crowter, 24, has joined forces with Cheryl Bilsborrow from Preston, whose two year-old son Hector has Down’s syndrome to launch a landmark case against the government, backed by the campaign group Don't Screen Us Out.
Heidi and her legal team have set up a CrowdJustice crowdfunding page to help raise the initial £20,000 to start legal proceedings, pay for legal advice and begin the preparation of the case. Up to £10,000 has already been raised in just a few days. To make a contrinution to the case visit: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/downrightdiscrimination/
“At the moment in the UK, babies can be aborted right up to birth if they are considered to be “seriously handicapped.” They include me in that definition of being seriously handicapped - just because I have an extra chromosome,” Heidi Crowter told journalists this week.
“What it says to me is that my life just isn’t as valuable as others, and I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s downright discrimination.”
Bilsborrow said she was strongly encouraged to have an abortion after doctors performed the screening test on her unborn child.
“The nurse reminded me I could have a termination right up to 40 weeks if the baby had Down’s,” Bilsborrow told the Catholic Herald.
“I just said to her: ‘I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,’ but it did make me feel very anxious.”
About nine in ten women have abortions after being given a diagnosis of Down syndrome, the Daily Mail reports. There were 3,269 disability-selective abortions in 2018 and 618 of these were for Down’s syndrome. This represents a 42% increase in abortion for Down’s syndrome in the last ten years with figures rising from 436 in 2008.
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has consistently criticised countries which have legalised disability-selective abortions, reports Don't Screen Us Out. In some countires, such as Iceland and Denmark, a culture of abortion on the basis of disability has led to a sky-rocketing abortion rate for babies found to have down syndrome, with the abortion rate close to 100% for the condition.
In the United States, there have been numerous attempts at the state level to ban abortions based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome.
Missouri lawmakers passed a law during 2019 that, in addition to banning all abortions after eight weeks, prohibits “selective" abortions following a medical diagnosis or disability such as Down syndrome, or on the basis of the race or sex of the baby. The law is currently blocked in the courts amid a legal challenge.
You can watch Heidi's moving interview this week with Channel Five News here: https://www.facebook.com/C5News/videos/1689617214513977/UzpfSTE0NTA2MTA1ODg0MDM2NjozMTU2NzQ2NDI0MzM4NDY2/
You can also listen to mum Cheryl talk about her son Hector and current UK abortion laws surrounding a diagnosis of Down's Syndrome here: https://www.facebook.com/dontscreenusout/videos/888719861587796/