Pressure to abort Down’s babies like mine says star
ACTRESS Sally Phillips yesterday claimed medical staff are routinely telling pregnant women to abort babies with Down’s syndrome.
The star, whose 12-year-old son Olly has the condition, said mothers-to-be found to be carrying Down’s children have been told: ‘Your marriage will break up if you have this baby,’ and: ‘You don’t want another one like her, do you.’
And one was simply told: ‘I’ve booked you in for a termination in the morning.’
Miss Phillips, who starred in the Bridget Jones films, as well as BBC sitcom Miranda, criticised the NHS’s approach.
The comments by the 46-year-old, who presents a BBC2 documentary about the issue to be aired next week, come days after senior doctors sparked fury by suggesting the NHS should work out the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of caring for Down’s children.
Writing in the Radio Times, she said: ‘I don’t feel that Down’s syndrome is a disability so severe that it warrants such huge government investment in so many state-of-the-art tests.
‘Some advocacy groups believed it was a government objective to reduce the Down’s syndrome population to save money.
‘I really hoped they were wrong. However, while making the documentary I heard many, many stories of women being pressuDown’s rised by medical professionals to screen, and even to terminate.’ Miss Phillips, who has three sons with her husband Andrew, has previously spoken out against NHS plans for a non-invasive test for Down’s syndrome that could reduce the risk of miscarriage.
She said: ‘I was told Olly might not walk. He walks, runs, swims and rides a bike. I was told he might not talk. He recites poetry, he acts, he plays the piano… Yes there are struggles, but to go all L’Oreal on you – he’s worth it.’
Dr Elizabeth Corcoran, of the Syndrome Research Foundation, said: ‘The pressure on parents of unborn babies with Down’s syndrome to terminate has become pervasive and is experienced across the country.
‘Again and again medical professionals are showing us they lack knowledge of the “real life” experience of living with [Down’s syndrome] in this century.’
Lynn Murray, of the Don’t Screen Us Out campaign, said: ‘I’ve heard of people repeatedly being asked about abortions.
‘Every time they go back to see doctors they are asked, “Are you sure?” It’s an assumption by doctors that this is a choice you’ll be making.’
But Professor Lesley Regan, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said prenatal tests gave ‘an opportunity for expectant parents to make informed choices about the implications of their test results’. Last week RCOG was accused of ‘putting a price on a life’ for referring to the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of caring for people with Down’s syndrome.