This Telegraph (UK) article reports that:
More than 100 babies with minor disabilities, such as a cleft palate or club foot, were aborted in one area of England in a three-year period, statistics reveal.
I’m generally pro-choice when it comes to abortion — but if your primary purpose for aborting a baby is because it has a cleft palate, then you should be sterilized and probably never allowed to procreate anyway.
The Abortion Act allows termination at any stage of pregnancy if two doctors agree there is a “substantial risk” of the child being “serious handicapped”.
But the scope of the term is left to the doctors’ discretion, and some fear the definition of “handicap” is widening as scanning technology develops.
I’d have to agree with Reverend Joanna Jepson on this, in that those are not serious handicaps:
Reverend Joanna Jepson, curate of St Michael’s Church in Chester, had corrective surgery on a congenital jaw defect and believes that a cleft palate is not a serious handicap.
As a complete aside — have you ever seen a cuter Reverend?
Robbie, let us not fool ourselves into thinking that individuals with cleft palates would not be discriminated against. Thankfully, that particular condition can be corrected with surgery, but what about more serious conditions? Cystic fibrosis? Down Syndrome?
Sometimes the compassionate thing to do is to end the fetus, rather than have it live a sickly life.
I just wanted to post a picture of the cute Reverend…