Hundreds of people with Down’s syndrome and their families have signed an open letter to the Prime Minister, Theresa May, who was due to step down on Wednesday, asking her to stop the Government from introducing abortion on the grounds of disability in Northern Ireland.
Last week a landmark legal amendment that will legalise abortion in Northern Ireland was attached to a separate Northern Ireland bill by the Labour MP Stella Creasy, and passed with overwhelming support (332 to 99). The legislation will also legalise abortion on the grounds of disability.
Lord Shinkwin, a disability rights campaigner and Conservative Peer, told the House of Lords last week that 90 per cent of pregnancies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in England and Wales are aborted. “What is proposed in the Bill drives a coach and horses through disability equality,” he said. He asked peers how they could reconcile the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act with “the message of the Bill, which is that if you are born with a disability, as I was, you are better off dead? For that is its message to disabled human beings, their families and the people of Northern Ireland.”
More than 700 people with Down’s syndrome have signed a letter asking May to intervene. “Please do not turn a blind eye. This is discrimination and will have a devastating impact on the community of people with Down’s syndrome,” the letter reads.
An SNP MP who voted against the amendment has spoken of the “traumatic” abuse she received afterwards. Dr Lisa Cameron, who sits for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow and is a member of the Church of Scotland, said she had been threatened with deselection by colleagues despite it being a free vote.
Loading ...
