Horror over abortions for minor disabilities

BY FREDDY GRAY
\MPAIGNERS have expressed their horror at new revelations that late abortions are regularly being carried out on unborn children with minor, treatable defects.
The latest official figures for 2005 showed that a significant number of foetuses with problems such as extra digits or club feet were being "terminated", raising fears that abortion is now being widely used as a form of eugenics to prevent the birth of "imperfect" humans.
More than 20 babies were killed for being club footed, a deformity that is usually easily corrected through surgery or physiotherapy. The famous historian Dr David Starkey was born with the condition.
"The law was not designed for this," said Anglican curate Joanna Jepson who in 2(X)4 tried to bring criminal charges against the doctors involved in aborting a 28-week foetus with a cleft palate.
"It is very distressing that abortions are still being carried out for such minor ailments. It is time for the Government to do something about this: there has been an obvious sway in the public opinion." Reports of the public's wish for reform of abortion law led Bob Spink, MP for Castle Point. to ask Parliament to establish a commission to review the abortion law.
During an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons last week, he said: "Parliament is not reluctant to grapple with the issue: a communications research showed that nine out of 10 MPs want the abortion law to be reviewed continuously in the light of medical advances in science.
"In the last election all three party leaders called for a review of the abortion laws. So why has action not been taken? Are human life and dignity to be held so cheap?"
Naomi Davis, a paediatrician at Manchester's children's hospital, told the Mail on Sunday: "It is reasonable to be shocked that abortion is being offered for this. It is entirely treatable. I can only think it is a lack of information?'
The new statistics also revealed that a record number of women, some 10,000, had used the abortion pill to end their pregnancies at home. even though the so-called "DIY" method has been linked to a number of deaths. It is thought that the pill has killed at least 10 women, including three in the United Kingdom.
Pro-lifers were particularly alarmed at the way that British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), Britain's leading abortion provider, seemed to be treating the huge rise in home abortions as a cause for celebration. "Their unpleasant claims to have trumped everybody else in the provision of abortions i, insulting to all
women.said the ProLife Alliance in a statement. "They are completely out of touch with modem feminist thinking at home and abroad. One can only wonder what time-warp BPAS is lost in."
Ann Furedi, BPAS's chief executive, said that demand for the abortion pill had "taken off" in the last two or three years. "Many women find the fact that they can go home is more natural, private and something they can organise into their lives better. With EMA (Early Medical Abortions). it's the woman having
the abortion, rather than a doctor doing it to them." But opponents of the abortion pill, also known as Mifepristone or RU486, say that the procedure poses serious health risks for mothers.
Michaela Aston. spokeswoman for Life, a pro-life counselling charity, said: "RU486 is a powerful and dangerous cocktail of drugs."
Alive and Kicking, the prolife campaign group, has organised a series of talks in Parliament entitled "Defiant Birth, Women who Resist Medical Eugenics", to cele brate women who decided to have their children despite advice from doctors that they should not because of disabilities — either in the child or in themselves.
The event will take place on June 7 in Committee Room 12 at he Palace of Westminster. "This meeting could not come at a more opportune moment:' said a campaign spokeswoman. "People who want to come along should book by entailing us at info@aliveandkiekingeampaigmorg."
Sarah Johnson: Page 12