Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
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SPUC responds to news that three Down's syndrome babies are aborted daily

London, 27 October 2009 - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has responded to the news that three Down's syndrome babies are aborted every day by proposing research on abortion for disability.

John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, said: "We must find out whether pre-abortion counselling includes a warning that women are more likely to suffer psychologically if they abort a child because of his or her disability.

"We shall also carry out research among politicians. We'll ask them whether they support abortion on the grounds of gender or race. I hope that few of them will. We'll then ask them if they support abortion because of disability. If they do, we'll ask how they can reconcile that with opposing abortion because of the baby's sex or skin colour."

The research among politicians will begin with questionnaires to UK MPs but will be extended to other elected representatives.

The increased likelihood of psychological problems among women who abort because of their babies' disability is described in "The psychosocial sequelae of a second-trimester termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality" by M C A White-Van Mourik, J M Connor and M A Ferguson-Smith, published in Prenatal diagnosis in 1992.