Displaying items by tag: learning disability
Woman with Down's syndrome loses abortion law appeal
Heidi Crowter, who has Down's syndrome, lost her appeal over a law allowing abortion up to birth for a foetus with Down’s. Legislation gives a 24-week time limit for abortion unless the child could suffer from physical or mental abnormalities, including Down’s. That law was made in 1967, when Down’s children could not even go to school because of their extra chromosome. Pray for judges to move with the times. Heidi said the rules discriminated against people with Down's and do not respect them. Her original court case against the Government was with Maire Lea-Wilson, mother of a Down’s son; she will now go to the Supreme Court. BPAS argued, ‘The claimants say foetuses should have human rights; this was never decided in UK law and goes against many years of legal precedent.’ 90% of women whose unborn children were diagnosed with Down's terminated their pregnancies in 2022.