95 per cent of parents who find out their unborn child has Down syndrome chose abortion, one hospital master in Ireland has claimed.
Prof Fergal Malone, the master of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, has claimed that 95 per cent of parents who see their unborn child diagnosed with Down syndrome in his hospital eventually opt for abortion.
Overall, around 6,700 abortions are said to have taken place in Ireland in 2021, with the country seeing a steadily rising number of terminations since the practice was liberalised after a referendum in 2018.
According to a report by the Irish Times, Prof Malone emphasised that while he did not encourage terminations for parents where the diagnosis of Down syndrome was given, many nevertheless opted to end the pregnancy regardless.
“We very much do not advocate for termination,” the hospital master emphasised. “The reality is that the vast majority choose to terminate.”
“I don’t have a view on whether that is the right thing,” he continued. “We don’t advocate for it, that is just the lived experience.”
The medical professional went on to say that he would like to see the country’s abortion laws further liberalised, with a mandatory three-day waiting period for terminations in particular being targeted as something that requires removal.
“I don’t think I can come up with any other example of healthcare – not transplantation or cancer surgery, for example – where we require someone to go through an informed consent process with a doctor and is then required to go away and come back in three days to reaffirm their consent,” he remarked, attacking the measure as “paternalistic”.
Overall, according to a report by Gript Media, around 6,700 abortions occurred in Ireland in 2021, with at least one pro-abortion group active in the country receiving criticism after it said it “celebrates” the high number.
However, while the number is high enough to cause some controversy in the country, it nevertheless pails in comparison to the number of terminations in England and Wales.
Both countries saw abortions hit record levels in 2021, with over 200,000 abortions reportedly taking place in both countries in the wake of the COVID pandemic according to official government statistics.
At least 99 per cent of these abortions were funded through the British taxpayer via the country’s NHS socialised healthcare service.
Meanwhile, some experts in Britain reportedly expect that the record number will continue to rise over the coming years, as Britain’s worsening socio-economic situation encourages more and more parents to opt-out of bringing children into the world.
“…with continuing problems accessing contraception coupled with the cost of living crisis, we would not be surprised to see greater demand over the coming months,” the head of one major abortion provider remarked.
Attempts at curbing the number of abortions in Britain have also largely failed, with one legal case against the aborting of Down syndrome babies being thrown out of court in November this year, with judges ultimately deciding that it does not matter that the ability to terminate pregnancies based on the foetus being likely to have a disability appears to degrade the lives of those living with said disabilities.
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