I agree with their legal bid. Whether the baby has a disability or not the cut off point should be the same. Later abortions are cruel and a disabled baby has as much a right to live as a non disabled baby. I wish them luck in their bid.
It's not about right to live. It's about a mother having the choice of whether she wants to raise a disabled child. It's about disabled children not being born into families unable or unwilling to cope with them.
I agree a disabled child has as much right to life as an able bodied child. But in a typical pregnancy you have around 18-20 weeks to decide if you want to keep that child. For a disabled child you may not find out until 20 weeks or even later that there is an issue, then you may have to wait longer for confirmation and diagnosis of likely outcomes. Even with downs, you may find out at 12 weeks your baby has it and decide to go ahead anyway, then find out at 20 weeks there are heart abnormalities - you then need to reassess your decision.
If you take away the right to terminate on grounds of disability after 24 weeks, you take away many women's rights to choose to whether to keep an ill or disabled baby. Because you simply don't always know before 24 weeks.
Having a disabled child is also not somthing anyone can deal with. I was surprised how much medical care I was expected to administer to my son. Stuff I am completely unqualified for - like changing an NG tube and administering feeds and medicine via the tube. Monitoring o2 levels, providing physio therapy, I've had to learn makaton to then teach to my child. What happenes to the children whose parents can't do those things? They end up in hospital long term because basic medical needs can't be met at home. Then when at home they don't get their additional needs met by ill equipt parents. That's not fair on the child.
As someone said people romanticise downs as all smiley little faces. Those kids grow up, into often hard to mange adults shunned by society. Many children are in and out of hospital frequently. I've seen a downs child depressed and in pain because he had to have a gi tube fitted and was no longer allowed food and drink - the tube kept getting painfully infected requiring multiple ops. I've seem a downs child regress to newborn because they were having multiple fits per day. Life isn't always smiles and joy for them.
And there is little to no support for parents. Downs isn't even classified as a disability anymore - even though I've never met a child that doesn't have some issue. So the parents struggle to acsess benefits, support and therapies. Even someone like me whose child is profoundly disabled struggles to get help. I've been fighting for respite for over a year and still getting nothing as there are no sutible placements or carers.
How about get the children that are already here proper support before forcing more disables children into this world.