To think that the world would not be a better place without Heidi *Content Warning - abortion/disability edited by MNHQ*

[bridgetreilly]

Heidi is 24 and has Downs syndrome. She is beautiful and brilliant and very articulate in explaining why the UK abortion law is discriminatory in allowing abortion up to full term where the child has Downs syndrome (and other non-fatal disabilities including cleft palate or club foot), when the standard limit is 24 weeks.

She's not the only one to think that. The United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ concluding observations on the initial report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland made a key recommendation that the UK change its abortion law on disability so that it does not single out babies with disabilities. However, the Government has decided to ignore this recommendation.

Heidi, along with the mother of a young boy with Downs syndrome, is planning to sue the government for discrimination. She is amazing and I hope she wins.

The people who think abortions up to term are fine in all cases.
You really think it’s ok to inject a foetus in the heart to kill it when it would be alive (and doing the same would be murder) if it had managed to travel down the women’s vagina a day or two earlier.
If you really think that is ok, I find that genuinely terrifying.

I don't know how I feel about it in all honesty. We had a DS family member who was very well loved and cared for but had nowhere near the abilities of the people involved in this case. He lived until his 60s, outliving his parents, then his sister who had to live with her when their parents died. He then spent a number of years living with his brother before suffering with alzheimers and having to go in a home. Both his brother and sister took him on at a time when their own DCs had grown and left home, and they really should have been at a stage where they could go on holiday, days out as they pleased but suddenly this wasn't possible.
A disabled child doesnt just impact the parents life it also impacts any siblings lives.

Isn't the issue because not everything is detected/options discussed by the 24 wks?

Heidi doesn't get to police my body or my choices.

it's not discrimination anyway. The difference is because of how long you have to wait to find out. Did anyone really think in a committee somewhere someone said "hey I hate disabled people let's make the limit later"

I am not in favour of any further restriction on abortion rights. Feel free not to abort for any disability or none, and I respect your decision, but your feelings are irrelevant to my decision. No woman should have to continue with a pregnancy against her will.

This sums it up for me.

It actually makes me quite angry that a disabled young woman is being used as a pawn here, because of her mother's views on late termination.

@Smileyaxolotl1 I don't have to like it. But I don't believe on restricting rights. Especially when it's fact that no woman would do that for shits and giggles.

I have never met a pro-lifer who believed first and foremost in supporting carers, as it happens. Or one who supported arranging adoption for forced birth

That’s not fair. Many pro life individual and organisations do a lot to support mothers with unplanned Pregnancies. Whether or not you agree with their views is another matter.

And any parent in the Uk has the right to make an adoption plan for their child, as long as they do it through a adoption agency. Private adoptions are illegal here. Perhaps you are thinking of the USA?

Absolutely nobody is saying that the world would be a better place without Heidi in it. Nobody. What a stupid, irresponsible, manipulative argument.

Do you know what else nobody does? Has an abortion after 24 weeks because they think it will be fun, or because they can’t be arsed. The women having late abortions are making terrible, heartbreaking decisions because they’ve found out about a problem they don’t feel equipped to deal with. Have you ever spoken to a woman who is six months pregnant and who doesn’t really have strong feelings about her future child? I haven’t. I’ve seen footage of people talking about what it was like to have to make this decision though, and they’re broken. Devastated. It must be one of the most painful things to have to go through, and here some of you are, heaping on the guilt and the judgment and running away with your burning urge to control what other women do. Shame on you.

I also would like to see the statistics on late term abortions by weeks.

08Catapillarsruletheworld definitely.

I can't see why people are losing their shit over someone asking for disabled people to have a level playing field here. Yes, even when they are a fetus with no rights.

It is not policing bodies or removing all abortion rights to say 'This isn't fair, the rules should be the same for all.'

Agree @Hoik and might I add that people who have already been born have more rights than people who have the potential to be born. It is not discrimination for the mother to decide what is best for her and her family. The foetus is not a person who can be discriminated against until they have entered our society through birth.

Heidi is Being treated as a puppet and a figurehead to fit an anti choice agenda. I wish she could just enjoy being a kid rather than being manipulated by her mother like this. If you can call someone who treats their kid like that a mother...

I have a family member who works booking in abortions.

She would assure that the hardest days are the days she has to book in an over 24 week abortion. These are usually much wanted and loved babies who are very disabled, the mother is usually heartbroken and distressed. The process involved is not something that anyone undertakes lightly, they happen incredibly rarely.

As early as possible and as late as needed.

By saying a disabled fetus should have rights you are saying the woman carrying it shouldn't. End of. And that's not OK.

I am against abortion as there are two human beings involved. I would support a woman's choice up until that choice would be to end another human being's life.

That said, I have had an unplanned pregnancy and I'm not unaware of the immense struggles that come with that. I have been very fortunate not to have a pregnancy where the baby had abnormalities and I can only truly sympathise with those parents faced with that.

I don't want to control women's choices any more than now

I read this with interest as I am currently expecting a DS baby. My family and I are extremely excited to meet him. I think this young lady is a credit and if my son is anything like her I shall feel very blessed. I disagree with full term abortion but not abortion itself.
It wouldn't be my choice in my current circumstances but I would never judge anyone for having an early abortion.

I don’t agree. There are a million wonderful children that could have been born that weren’t - for a million different reasons. It’s not about the babies that weren’t born - it’s about the women who were carrying the baby. I give them the say. I won’t agree with some of their reasons but they get the choice. Always.

And any parent in the Uk has the right to make an adoption plan for their child, as long as they do it through a adoption agency

Adoption brings it own issues, one of which is that very few prospective adopters are willing to take on a child with complex disabilities.

I also would like to see the statistics on late term abortions by weeks

In 2018 there were only 289 abortions carried out after 24wks but I can't find a break down of how many were in each particular week.

Smileyaxolotl1

I don’t like it, of course not, and I would hope it would never come to that, but a woman’s right to control what happens to her own body must always come first.

Smiley...yes that is preferable to a woman being to birth and raise a child when she doesn't have the resources to do so. What happens when that baby is 30 and can't be left alone, can't cross the road independently, etc? What happens when there is no community care for that 30 year old? What happens when that 30 year old has to have yet another operation for a severe heart defect?

@Smileyaxolotl1 I support the rights of a pregnant woman over those of an unborn child in all circumstances. What I find terrifying is continued attempts by the pro life mob, pretending that they actually give a shit about the unborn baby, trying to chip away at pregnant women’s bodily autonomy, when all they in fact care about is controlling women.

Because if you think this ridiculous case would be the end of the matter from the pro life lot, I think you’re mistaken. Next step will be trying to drop the time limit even further. The pro life lot just think this will be a quick win.

If the rules should at some stage come up for discussion, medicine has to deliver a reliable test for all disabilities by 20 weeks. That would make everything 'fair' and 'the same'.

There is no test.

As early as possible,as late as necessary for any reason

I’d be fine removing restrictions on abortion, I absolutely do believe it has to be the choice of the pregnant woman, as late as is necessary.

I would be against equalising the limit at 24 week, as it would be another restriction on abortion rights. It’s not about whether Heidi or other people like her should be here or not, it’s about the women this concerns having the choice in regards to what they want regarding their bodies and their lives.