Mum of baby with Down's syndrome suing government over abortion law

[SharonasCorona]

The mother of a baby with Down's syndrome is suing the government for allowing disabled children to be aborted after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

After 24 weeks a woman can have an abortion if she is at risk of grave physical and mental injury, or there is a severe foetal abnormality, including Down's syndrome.

Maire Lea-Wilson says she was encouraged in hospital to abort her son, who is now 11 months old. She felt the assumption was "that you would want to abort a child with Down's syndrome".

I’m in pro-choice, but I didn’t realise you could abort disabled children until birth. It’s shocking that a woman with a healthy baby with Down’s Syndrome was encouraged to have an abortion, right up until she carried the baby full term.

[SharonasCorona]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/mum-of-baby-with-downs-syndrome-suing-government-over-abortion-law-11993666

[Thighmageddon]

Have you had any experience looking after an adult with Downs full time?

I fully support a woman's right to terminate if she wishes.

I had the test to see if my youngest had Downs and I was fully prepared to terminate if the test was positive, albeit earlier in the pregnancy.

[dementedpixie]

There's another thread about this

[Crunchymum]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3918194-Girl-challenging-abortion-law-on-grounds-of-disability

[SharonasCorona]

@Thighmageddon

You’ve misunderstood the point of this thread. The point is that this woman was an outraged to abort right up until she carried baby full term.

[SharonasCorona]

@thanks @@dementedpixie I did do a search for other threads but missed that, will head over there.

[Thighmageddon]

No I've not missed the point of the thread.

I knew you could abort before this story came out.

[SharonasCorona]

The point which you’re still missing is this woman was encouraged to abort. That’s not right.

[JoeExoticsEyebrowRing]

She says she was 'encouraged' to abort. That is very subjective to be honest, and it's perfectly possible that she was projecting emotions onto what she was being told by medical professionals.

However, she was not forced to have an abortion, she had the choice. So why she wants to deny other women that same choice is beyond me.

[Mucklowe]

I 100% support women to be able to abort for whatever reason, at whatever gestation.

[grey12]

Maybe she shouldn't be encouraged but told her options matter of fact.

@JoeExoticsEyebrowRing might be onto something though. Maybe she is overreacting

[SharonasCorona]

Maire knew from the beginning her baby has Down’s Syndrome. Asking her at 34 weeks pregnant if she wants to abort and as she says, encouraging her ( the expectation is that she should want to abort) is not giving her choice, it’s putting pressure on her.

[Thisismytimetoshine]

There is no such thing as forced abortion.
It'd be interesting to hear an exact transcript of this "encouragement" - I'd imagine it was a conversation to establish that she was aware of all her options.
It was in nobody's interest to encourage her to take any particular path, and I seriously doubt any medical professional did in fact do that.

[0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h]

Being"reminded" you have the option to abort is a subtle form of pressure and I think it's right there should be discussion about it.

[KKSlider]

The choice lies with the woman carrying the pregnancy.

This woman had that choice, she chose to continue her pregnancy. I find it very saddening that she now wants to take that same choice away from other women.

Abortions post-24wks exist for a reason. It can take time for test results, time to reach a decision, time to prepare, and having an arbitrary cut off would interfere with that process which is why we allow this flexibility.

[SharonasCorona]

@0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h yes!

[Thisismytimetoshine]

Asking if you want to do something is giving you a choice
She said no, so there was clearly no force involved.

[bindibindi]

Down's syndrome shouldn't be encouraged as I would class it as a mild disability, physically and intellectually (I read this) and it poses no harm for mother and baby at birth, so I don't understand why its pushed for termination?
There are some severe disabilities where I believe it would be the right choice for parents to terminate if they choose to at whatever stage they have found out, ultimately if a child would be born to suffer their whole life I'd cut their pain short.

[0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h]

this

Could you clarify your claim that there is no such thing as forced abortion? I find it easy to imagine so I'm interested to know how you arrive at that.

[Thighmageddon]

The point which you’re still missing is this woman was encouraged to abort. That’s not right.

Her idea of encouragement may well be very different to mine.

We have no idea if she's misinterpreted what was said.

[Thisismytimetoshine]

Why don't you explain why I'm wrong?

[BeeFarseer]

I 100% support women to be able to abort for whatever reason, at whatever gestation.

[KKSlider]

Maire knew from the beginning her baby has Down’s Syndrome. Asking her at 34 weeks pregnant if she wants to abort and as she says, encouraging her ( the expectation is that she should want to abort) is not giving her choice, it’s putting pressure on her.

Then her response should be a complaint against the individual members of staff that she encountered, not a court case to remove the choices of every pregnant woman

[EvilPea]

It is not for me to say what another woman or family should do.
What is right for one is wrong for another and I will not support someone taking that choice away from someone else.

[SharonasCorona]

I will always be pro-choice but there should be a change if women are being encouraged to abort as it makes choice a mockery. A cynical part of me wonders if the NHS is trying to lessen impact on resources by effectively having no children with Down’s Syndrome in the country.