New abortion figures reveal shocking discrimination against disabled people

Newly-released figures of abortions of disabled babies reveal a shocking level of discrimination against disabled people. The Department of Health, following a legal application by the Pro-Life Alliance, revealed the precise numbers, gestational ages and types of disability of babies aborted between 2002 and 2010. The figures, among other things, revealed that 482 babies reportedly with Down's Syndrome were aborted in 2010 alone. Also released today were figures regarding abortions on teenagers under the age of consent (16), showing that in 2010 alone there were 3,718 abortions among 12- to 15-year-olds.

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, told the media earlier today:

"Between 2001 and 2010, the number of abortions on the ground of disability rose by one-third, 10 times that of abortions generally. It is clear that legal abortion is a system which discriminates, fatally, against the disabled.

Ann Furedi, the leader of the UK pro-abortion lobby, has today praised medics who abort disabled people, and described such abortions as couples 'los[ing]' a pregnancy http://bit.ly/jA3FnX . It is grossly misleading of Ms Furedi to imply that aborted babies are merely 'lost', as one might describe a miscarriage. Abortion is the intentional killing of a unborn child. It is medically unnecessary and ethically unacceptable. SPUC recognizes the profound challenge to couples who receive a diagnosis of disability in their unborn child, but Ann Furedi's comment is extremist.

The figures on teenage abortions reveal the failure of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy inherited from the Labour government. The government must cut its ties and deny funding to those groups which share responsibility for that failure, most notably Brook and the Family Planning Association."

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