Woman with learning issues in birth control dispute

A judge has been asked to rule on a dispute over whether a woman with learning disabilities who was at the centre of an abortion battle should be fitted with a contraceptive device.

The woman’s mother won a legal battle with doctors, who said the pregnancy should be terminated, in June.

Specialists now plan to deliver the baby by Caesarean section in the near future.

Bosses at an NHS hospital trust responsible for the woman’s care say doctors should be allowed to fit a contraceptive device immediately after that operation, while the woman is under anaesthesia.

But lawyers appointed to represent the woman, and a social worker who works with her, disagree.

They say fitting a contraceptive device immediately after a Caesarean section would be an unjustified “interference” with the woman’s “bodily autonomy”.

They claim it would be premature and that the woman should have more involvement in the decision.

Judges have been told that the woman, who is in her 20s, has the mental age of a child aged between six and nine and cannot make decisions for herself.

Mr Justice Macdonald is analysing arguments about contraception at a hearing in the Court of Protection in London, where issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions are considered.

The woman can’t be identified in reports of the case.