Catholic doctors have welcomed the introduction of a bill to the House of Lords that seeks to outlaw abortion up to birth of disabled babies.
The Abortion (Disability Equality) Bill, introduced by Lord Shinkwin, a Conservative peer, came 12th in the private members’ bill ballot and was read for the first time on Wednesday (25 May).
“Discrimination on the grounds of disability after birth is outlawed. Yet today legal and lethal discrimination on the grounds of disability is allowed up to birth by law,” said Lord Shinkwin, on introducing the bill. Lord Shinkwin, who worked for 20 years in the voluntary sector, has focused on charity governance and disability equality issues since becoming a peer in 2015.
The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) said it supported and applauded the new bill. “It is a strange quirk of inequality to have the current law allowing discriminatory abortion up to birth for children who are suspected to have a handicap or condition that may not even be life threatening, such as Down’s syndrome, but not beyond 24 weeks for other ‘normal’ children',” a spokesman said.
Currently, if two doctors believe there is “substantial risk” that if the child is born they will suffer from physical or mental abnormalities enough to be seriously disabled, then a baby can be aborted up until birth.
Lord Shinkwin’s bill will remove that condition so abortion law will no longer reference disability. In his speech, Lord Shinkwin said the law as it stands discriminates on account of disability. “It is illegal for an unborn human being to have their life ended by abortion beyond 24 weeks, but if they have a disability their life can be ended right up to birth by law. Where is the consistency, the justice or the equality in that?
“If anyone thinks such discrimination is acceptable, I respectfully invite them to imagine the outcry if the same were applied to skin colour or sexual orientation. Such discrimination would rightly be regarded as outrageous.”
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