Should late-term abortions for “foetal abnormalities” be banned?

Frijj

Frijj

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A law allowing parents to terminate pregnancies where the foetus has Down's syndrome at any time up until its birth should be changed, campaigners say.

They have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying all non-fatal disabilities should be subject to the standard 24-week abortion limit.

Heidi Crowter, who has the condition, said the law was "deeply offensive".

The government said any decision to terminate "must rest on the judgement of the woman and her doctors".


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www.bbc.co.uk

Down's syndrome: Campaigners say abortions 'need 24-week limit'

Parents whose babies have the condition can currently choose to terminate any time up to the birth.
www.bbc.co.uk

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Fucked the thread title. Should they be banned?
 


Yes they should be banned. Downs syndrome isn't a terminal illness. People with it can live happy, healthy lives and the average life expectancy now is 60 years.

Should never allow late term abortions.

Also, how does that work. There must be a limit or in theory you could have an abortion just days before going in to Labour
 
In the old days a Downs Syndrome baby would generally not be expected to live beyond their childhood because of heart abnormalities and other issues. Now most Downs Syndrome babies will have a pretty normal life span.

Although I am not generally in favour of abortion, I believe it is wrong to assign parents a lifetime burden of a child with disabilities - not just Downs but all severe disabilities.

If the government were to fund housing improvements for disabled children, give their parents financial assistance for those who can’t work because of caring responsibilities, and offer regular respite care then I might be persuaded to change my opinion. As things stand I think that parents of disabled children should be offered every kind of assistance required, up to and including abortion if they request it.

It is not the average bloke in the streets responsibility to care for these children and it is therefore not their choice whether or not abortion is considered. The only people whose opinion matters is that of the parents making an horrendous choice on whether they should tie themselves for the rest of their lives to a disabled adult who may outweigh them and be more powerful than them, or whether they take the decision to walk away.

Downs children don’t remain sweet and cute children. They can grow up into incontinent adults requiring 24 hour supervision. We should never force someone to keep that child if their preference is to abort.
 
Awful subject. Not sure if there is a right or wrong.

I remember being told at 12 weeks that we had a very high chance of Trisomy 13 (incompatible with life) with our 1st. We were given the option to terminate, go for a further test which had a chance of miscarriage or take our chance. Opted for the latter and turned out OK but it's awful being given that. Worse of course for those where it is confirmed.
 
HellsBells said:
I’d like to know what proportion of late term abortions are for non-fatal abnormalities. Hardly any, I’d assume. I may be wrong.
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There's not many late term abortions full stop. Looked it up in when there was a similar thread a year or two ago.

I support abortions up to the point they get a job and move out. My kid works really hard at school because of this
 
MonkeyLove said:
Surely if anything that's more reason to ban it
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What if the mother/family simply don’t have the resources to devote to a child with significant disability? You could extend that to any disability I’m sure but one that’s screened for, maybe make an exception?
Some Random Guy said:
There's not many late term abortions full stop. Looked it up in when there was a similar thread a year or two ago.

I support abortions up to the point they get a job and move out. My kid works really hard at school because of this
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Wtf :lol:
 
As the dad of a little girl with downs I feel I can comment a little on this.

We didn't find out my daughter had downs till she was born and to be honest it didn't change a thing.

My first born was still born and that's probably affected my judgement on abortion as having lost one baby I couldn't face losing another.

Having a child with downs isn't a curse, yes it's hard work at times and we signed up to potentially a life time of caring for her, but we have also discovered a huge support network of parents willing to share advice and support.

This issue goes way beyond disability but whether you as an adult are comfortable with a termination so late in pregnancy when essentially the baby is fully formed.

Ive probably not worded that correctly as it's a highly emotive subject and difficult to express as words on a page rather than if it was a conversation in real life
 

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