UK Confirms Abortion Is Legal Until Birth For Fetuses With Down Syndrome

The British Court of Appeals upheld the law allowing abortion of fetuses this Friday. Down syndrome until the moment of birth after the objection made by a woman with this genetic disease and the mother of a child with this disease is rejected.

Heidi Crowter, a 27-year-old woman with Down syndrome living in Coventry, England, and Marie Lea-Wilson, mother of a boy named Aidan, also filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Health and Social Care. Hoping that a part of the Abortion Law will disappear understand that this is an example of “inequality”.

Although in England Current legislation in Wales and Scotland allows abortion as long as it is done within the first 24 weeks. gestation period, the law also allows abortion until the moment of delivery when there is a “significant risk”, “the unborn child has physical or mental abnormalities or has serious disabilities, including Down syndrome”.

Last September, British judges committed to finding a balance between the rights of the unborn and the rights of women, and this particular case was discussed at a court hearing last July.

As determined today by Supreme Court judges, legislation does not interfere with the rights of “surviving disabled people”.

By rejecting this woman’s appeal, the judges recognized that “this court recognizes that many people with Down syndrome and other disabilities will be upset and offended that this diagnosis of severe disability during pregnancy is seen by law as a justification for abortion. It implies that their own lives are less valuable.” .

Last July, attorney Jason Coppell, representing Crowter and Lea-Wilson, felt that the language used in this law was taken into account by some. “offensive and unacceptable”.

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“It saddens me that fetuses with Down syndrome can be aborted until birth. It shows me that I am no less valuable and valuable than someone who does not have Down syndrome,” Crowter said. decision.

The woman, who did not refuse to take her case to the Supreme Court of Appeals, the country’s highest judicial authority, assured that she would continue the “struggle” for this cause, believing that she had already succeeded in “informing and changing hearts and minds”. It changed people’s view of the law.”