MORE than 50 babies with club feet were aborted in just one area of England in a three-year period, according to new statistics.
Thirty-seven babies with cleft lips or palates and 26 with extra or webbed fingers or toes were also aborted.
The data have raised concerns about abortions being carried out for minor disabilities that could be cured by surgery.
Abortions are allowed up to birth in Britain in cases of serious handicap, but the law does not define what conditions should be considered grave enough to allow a termination late in the pregnancy. That is left to the discretion of doctors.
The Commons science and technology committee is carrying out an inquiry into whether the law should be made more specific.
Some parents, doctors and campaign groups are worried by what they see as a tendency to stretch the definition of serious handicap.
In 2003 Joanna Jepson, a Church of England curate, instigated a legal challenge against West Mercia police for failing to prosecute doctors who carried out an abortion on a baby with a cleft palate at 28 weeks’ gestation. The challenge failed but raised public concerns over terminations for minor disabilities.
However, the latest figures — released by the South West Congenital Anomaly Register — show that dozens of abortions are still carried out after the condition is discovered. Read more
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