Call to rethink views on disabled foetuses

The practice of aborting foetuses because they are disabled is akin
to terminating pregnancies on the grounds of race or gender, a
campaigner told delegates.

Rachel Hurst, director of the charity Disability Awareness in
Action, said that, by allowing disabled foetuses to be aborted,
society was treating disabled people differently from other groups.

“In human rights terms, if you are going to allow women access to
abortion on a viable foetus because they are disabled then you must
allow them to do it on the grounds of gender or race,” she
said.

Hurst added that, if a woman chose to abort an unviable foetus –
one that would be unable to survive – that was “absolutely right
and proper”.

However, she said society had to “look very carefully” at allowing
foetuses that could live, such as those that are disabled, to be
aborted.