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.

After a period of infertility we finally were pregnant. Had a 'high risk' reading from 12 week scan so had to have scan repeated to have measurements taken again and again. Throughout the entire time instead of getting to enjoy seeing our wee one and hearing their heartbeat I was told by sonographer that there was no point in having the measurements taken as I wouldn't get an annio to confirm. I explained we would like to know if there was a high chance in order to prepare eg look into the realities of immediately after birth and breastfeeding a baby with DS but that it wasn't worth risking a miscarriage for getting amnio. She continued to explain I was wasting her time if I refuse amnio. Scan was still measuring high. It wasn't until seeing midwife I was told I could have a non invasive blood test which still only gave results in 'risk' categories, not definitive but this was fine for us.
That's the kind of coercive pressure parents whose children have detectable disabilities are under BEFORE diagnosis, nevermind after, so I can quite believe she was encouraged. Had i been less informed about DS or didn't know people with DS it would have been easy to convince me to go ahead with amnio and risk miscarriage (however small) and I might not have my amazing wee one just now.
After this experience i shared it with a colleague who had been through something similar in that she was told to seriously consider what the impact would be on her eldest if she continued a pregnancy with a child with a disability. No positives, no here is support if baby does receive this diagnosis. But pressure to end pregnancy.
I am pro choice but there is undeniably a horrible pressure from some people who think they know best. It's not just pro choice and 'pro life', there are those who would discourage or disagree with some births too and unfortunately some are in a position of power in healthcare.

Op I am unsure of which country you are in, but if the Sky 'news' you have in your country is the same as the Sky 'news' we have in Australia, it is ultra far right, even further right than Fox 'news' in America. So I would never believe anything reported on Sky (or at least Australia's version) as they have an agenda and deliberately omit things that don't suit them. Regardless, I believe that we should be working on 0% DS births - that is the purpose of the testing. To, eradicate, so to speak, the disability. There is nothing good about knowingly bringing a DS child out into the world, and those who knowingly do either after the test results, or those who do not have the testing done, should have to fully fund their choice for the child's full life, and not utilise any (already over-stretched) public disability or health care or benefits.

@Sunnydaysarecoming There is no 'baby' and it isn't murder. It is an embryo/foetus.

Secondly, please keep your God beliefs to yourself.

@Sunnydaysarecoming Get away! I've seen mine at 6 and 7 weeks and they didn't look like a baby. Yours must be of the magic variety

Oh sunny, behave yourself. At 6 & 7 weeks old they look like a miniature prawn.

And god is irrelevant when the issues is other people's choices. They have no obligation to make decisions based on other people's faith.

@SharonasCorona

I very much doubt if this will ever go anywhere. I very much doubt that her medical notes will contain anything like "encouraged Mrs ... to abort her Down's child at 34 weeks". How on earth could she prove what happened ar what was said even to the standard of "on the balance of probabilities"

I absolutely 100% support the right of any woman to choose to abort a pregnancy which is unwanted or in which the foetus has an abnormality which would likely have a very substantial impact on quality of life. My heart absolutely breaks for anyone having to make this very difficult decision though.

@Sunnydaysarecoming

The man in that video praised a mass shooter who killed 49 people. So much for the sanctity of life.

A 6 week old fetus does not look like a "real" baby. If that's what you're expecting your baby to actually look like you're in for a fairly pleasant surprise...

I suspect this woman’s experience is not unique. There was a documentary a couple of years ago on how there will be no babies with Down’s Syndrome in the near future.

I don’t understand why this would be a bad thing? It’s a genetic abnormality which can cause very severe and upsetting challenges for those affected.

Also, NOBODY wants a baby with DS. Sometimes that is just the hand you are dealt; sometimes you are given a choice not to go down the road. What is wrong with that?

I am actually anti-abortion, but not when it comes to babies with life limiting disabilities. As sad as it is, why knowingly make life so very hard for yourself, your family, and for the affected child?

@Theeighthelephant
These people only care about the sanctity of life up to seeing the head crown.
Then mother and child can drop dead for all they care.

Abortion doesn’t erase the existence of a child. So if we eradicated Down syndrome by say taking a tablet around the time of conception of course most women will choose to take it.

At diagnosis though the choice isn’t a baby with Down syndrome or a baby with no Down syndrome. It’s a baby with Down syndrome or no baby. That’s a far less palatable choice. So a number of families would choose a baby with DS or indeed far more severe conditions because they’d rather have their baby than no baby at all.

@Osirus I think people who have chosen to adopt a child with Down syndrome would disagree with you about NOBODY wanting a child with Down syndrome! Also those who have continued a pregnancy after having a diagnosis of Down syndrome obviously want that child regardless!

@TheDIsiilusionedAnarchist It is not an either this child or no child at all scenario. They can try for another child.

It is the women, not the men, who become the slaves of motherhood and should be allowed the choices.

Surely if we can remove any genetic cause of low IQ, including Down syndrome, then just as Virginia Woolf and HG Wells extolled, the world would be a better, more rational place?

HG Wells had once been a devout Christian but he became a devout Darwinist and foresaw an end to the ‘diseased, deformed and insane’ by genetic means.

He rejected God, Christianity and religion and turn into an apostle in favouring “the procreation of what is fine and efficient and beautiful in humanity-beautiful and strong bodies, clear powerful minds.”
Like most of us on this thread he saw the weak sentimentality of religion.

Down syndrome is a genetic error and women should be allowed to choose neonatal euthanasia or termination to determine their own futures.

I believe that we should be working on 0% DS births - that is the purpose of the testing. To, eradicate, so to speak, the disability. There is nothing good about knowingly bringing a DS child out into the world, and those who knowingly do either after the test results, or those who do not have the testing done, should have to fully fund their choice for the child's full life, and not utilise any (already over-stretched) public disability or health care or benefits.

You should be ashamed. What a fucking disgusting person you are.

I’m not anti abortion as it’s each to their own. However like everything in life there has to be a line drawn and you need some sort of protocol to follow.
My only issue is 24 weeks is quite far on to be pregnant physically & mentally. I’m assuming it would be quite traumatic having to abort that far on.

It is the women, not the men, who become the slaves of motherhood and should be allowed the choices.

This makes no sense. How on earth could fathers be anything to motherhood, they’re not mothers. If you’ve chosen a shot father for your child, that’s your mistake.

Surely if we can remove any genetic cause of low IQ, including Down syndrome, then just as Virginia Woolf and HG Wells extolled, the world would be a better, more rational place?

Wtf... seriously? Because it’s people with disabilities including DS that make the world not a good place? I really can’t believe the utter shit you’ve written.

*shit

I do believe women should have the choice to abort. But some people on this thread are vile.

I think people who have chosen to adopt a child with Down syndrome would disagree with you about NOBODY wanting a child with Down syndrome!

A desire to adopt a child with DS who already exists and has been given up for adoption is not the same as actively hoping to conceive a child with DS.

I totally agree with the poster who said that nobody, absolutely no one, wants to conceive a child with DS.

The right thing is to allow the would be parents the right to choose. Why do we believe that we have the right to impose limitations on the choices of other people? If you really care about society so strongly go and care for the unfortunate and the destitute, you don't have to look hard to find them.

1 person's subtle pressure is another person's information giving.