Abortion law allowing babies with Down’s syndrome to be aborted any time up to birth is discriminatory, the High Court has heard.
Heidi Crowter, a campaigner who has Down’s syndrome, brought the case along with Brentford mother Máire Lea-Wilson who said she was pressurised to abort her son at 34 weeks. Her son Aidan, now two, has Down’s syndrome.
Discriminatory
Under the Abortion Act 1967, a woman whose baby is diagnosed in the womb with Down’s syndrome or other severe foetal abnormality can abort any time up to birth.
The claimants’ barrister told the court that this is discriminatory and interferes with the right to respect for private life under the European Convention on Human Rights. The ruling is expected this autumn.
Speaking to a rally outside the court during the case, Heidi said: ‘This law makes me feel I am better off dead. I know I’m not, but that’s how it makes me feel … Everybody is equal, and doctors shouldn’t tell women that they will be sorry if their child is born.’
Change in the law
She added: ‘My fight for justice and equality has brought us here today to change a law that makes me think I shouldn’t have been born. When the law changes for us then we will have won the fight.’
Lynn Murray, spokesperson for the Don’t Screen Us Out campaign, also spoke outside the court. She said: ‘For too long people with Down’s syndrome have been marginalised and excluded from society – but the advent of equality law means that this should no longer the case and these equality ideas should be embedded in every law, including abortion law’.
More than 41,000 people in the UK have Down’s syndrome and have an average life expectancy of 50–60 years. According to Right to Life, around 90% of babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in the womb are aborted.
