A Conservative MP in the UK Parliament will be debating abortion on the grounds of disability today. While this is a foreign concept in Canada, it is good to know that countries around the world can discuss the rights of pre-born children without the sky falling in, or politicians fearing for their positions.<\/p>\n

The current debate comes on the heels of a Parliamentary Inquiry<\/a> launched by MP Fiona Bruce into whether the Abortion Act 1967 unjustly discriminates against disabled babies by permitting abortion up to birth on disability grounds. Currently, the United Kingdom has a gestational law prohibiting abortions past 24 weeks for other reasons.<\/p>\n

We read here<\/a> that,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Inquiry concluded\u00a0that the law on abortion\u00a0for disability could fall foul of both the 2010 Equality Act and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that a child \u201cneeds special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report<\/a> on the findings of the Inquiry\u00a0revealed that:<\/p>\n

\n
• Approximately 90 per cent of unborn babies who are diagnosed with Down\u2019s syndrome in England and Wales are aborted following\u00a0prenatal testing.<\/strong><\/li>\n
• Around seven terminations for\u00a0cleft lip, and five for cleft palate,\u00a0have taken place in England and Wales since 2002.<\/strong><\/li>\n
• Following a disability diagnosis, many parents feel that they\u00a0are\u201cpushed towards” having an abortion\u00a0without due consideration of other options, and many who\u00a0decide to keep their child face discrimination.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  The Inquiry recommended<\/a> Parliament\u00a0to remove the discriminatory aspects of the Act either by repealing section 1(1)(d), which permits terminations on disability grounds, or as a minimum, reducing the upper limit for disability abortions to make it equal to that of abortion on other grounds.<\/p>\n

  Let\u2019s hope the UK Parliament will listen to this courageous MP and reviews the eugenic practice of terminating pregnancies on the basis of ability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A Conservative MP in the UK Parliament will be debating abortion on the grounds of disability today. While this is a foreign concept in Canada, it is good to know that countries around the world can discuss the rights of pre-born children without the sky falling in, or politicians fearing for their positions. The current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3014,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[281,277,272,282],"tags":[549,79,548,394,200,547,102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3014"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5317,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions\/5317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}