Disabled Woman

U.K. Court Says Mentally Disabled Woman Must Have Abortion Yonette, Joseph . New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jun 23, 2019.

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ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) A judge called her decision “heartbreaking,” but in the best interest of the woman, who is 22 weeks pregnant. FULL TEXT LONDON —A British court has ordered an abortion for a mentally disabled woman against her and her mother’s

wishes, with the judge calling the decision “heartbreaking” but in the best interests of the woman, who is 22 weeks

pregnant.

The unidentified woman, who lives in London, is in her 20s and has the mental capacity of a 6- to 9-year-old child,

according to evidence presented Friday at the court in London. The circumstances of the pregnancy were unclear,

the court was told, and a police investigation was underway, according to news reports.

The decision was first revealed by the Press Association and other British news media, including The Catholic

News Agency. The woman and her family were not identified, and neither her family nor her lawyers could be

reached for comment. But a spokesman for the court confirmed public details of the case by email on Sunday,

including the court proceeding and the judge’s comments.

Justice Nathalie Lieven handed down the decision at the Court of Protection, which hears cases on issues relating

to people who are considered to lack the mental capability to make decisions for themselves.

[An appeals court overturned the decision ordering a developmentally disabled woman to have an abortion.]

“I am acutely conscious of the fact that for the state to order a woman to have a termination where it appears that

she doesn’t want it is an immense intrusion,” Justice Lieven said in her decision.

But the judge said she had to act in the woman’s “best interests, not on society’s views of termination.”

The British charity Life, which says its mission is to create a society that “has the utmost respect for all human life

from fertilization,” said in a Facebook post that the decision was “truly horrendous.” Commentators on the site

described it as “terrible” and “devastating.”

“That is wrong on every level; doesn’t mean baby will have learning difficulties,” another person wrote on the

Facebook page of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

A spokeswoman for the British group Abortion Rights, which she said campaigned “to keep options open for the

many women who willingly choose to end their pregnancies,” described the case in a telephone call on Sunday as

not unprecedented but “really sad and complex.”

The group’s chairwoman, Kerry Abel, said in an email statement: “As heartbreaking as this case is, it is

opportunistic for antichoice organizations to use it to attack a woman’s right to choose. One in three women will

have an abortion in the U.K. for many, many individual reasons, and we shouldn’t undermine free, safe, legal

abortion based on one difficult case.”

The woman was under the care of a National Health Service trust, which sought the court’s permission for doctors

to perform the abortion, the court was told. The council that employs the social worker had also asked for a

decision.

Both the woman and her mother, identified by news reports as a former midwife from Nigeria, are against

terminating the pregnancy, with the older woman offering to care for the child, according to the court and news

media reports. The woman’s lawyers and a social worker also objected to terminating the pregnancy.

It was not immediately clear whether the woman and her lawyers had the option of appealing the decision.

Under Britain’s 1967 Abortion Act, abortions can be performed up to the 24th week of pregnancy. A section of the

abortion act allows the termination of a pregnancy if there is a significant risk of the baby’s being born seriously

disabled. Otherwise, abortions must take place during the first six months of pregnancy.

The Disability Rights Commission denounced that portion of the act in 2001, calling it discriminatory and

“offensive to many people.”

According to the latest statistics from Britain’s Department of Health and Social Care, there were 200,608

abortions by residents in England and Wales last year, a 4 percent rise compared with 2017, the highest number on

record. (The figure rose to 205,295 when nonresidents were counted.)

Last year, the British government announced that women in England would for the first time be legally allowed to

take an abortion pill at home to terminate pregnancies, following in the footsteps of Scotland and Wales.

The judge in the Court of Protection said she made her decision based on consideration of the abortion law, the

2005 Mental Capacity Act and evidence presented at the hearing. There was no evidence in this case that the

woman’s fetus is impaired.

But the court was told that the woman had been given a diagnosis of a “moderately severe” learning disorder and a

mood disorder.

The jurist said that though she was aware that the woman wanted to keep the baby, she was not sure the woman

had any sense of what having a baby “meant.”

“I think she would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll,” the judge said.

The judge noted the risks posed by the woman’s behavioral and psychological problems, and suggested that the

grandmother, who vowed to care for the child, might have to leave the mother and the home at some point.

She also said she thought the woman would suffer more if the baby was brought to term and taken away to foster

care or for adoption than if pregnancy was terminated.

The woman “would suffer greater trauma from having a baby removed,” the judge said, adding, “It would at that

stage be a real baby.”

Palko Karasz contributed reporting. DETAILS

Subject: Evidence; Womens health; Attorneys; Social workers; Society; Pregnancy; Court

hearings &proceedings; Criminal investigations; Abortion; Intellectual disabilities

Location: Nigeria Scotland United Kingdom--UK Wales England

Company / organization: Name: Society for the Protection of Unborn Children; NAICS: 813940; Name:

Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130

Identifier / keyword: Intellectual Disabilities Abortion Decisions and Verdicts Great Britain London

(England) National Health Service

Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York

Publication year: 2019

Publication date: Jun 23, 2019

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Publisher: New York Times Company

Place of publication: New York

Country of publication: United States, New York

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States

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Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 2245043694

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Copyright: Copyright 2019 The New York Times Company

Last updated: 2019-08-09

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