An Irish couple who aborted their unborn baby after prenatal tests detected a potentially fatal disability said a later test showed that their baby was healthy.
RTE News reports authorities now are investigating the incident, which occurred at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, Dublin, in March.
The couple recently filed a complaint against the hospital, saying they very much wanted their baby, according to the report. Reports suggest the unnamed couple would not have had the abortion if they had known their child would be born healthy.
Earlier this year, two prenatal screening tests indicated that the unborn baby had Trisomy 18, a severe but not always fatal chromosomal abnormality, according to the report. U.S. pro-life politician Rick Santorum’s daughter, Bella, has Trisomy 18, and is almost 11 years old.
The unnamed mother had the abortion in March when she was 15 weeks pregnant, according to the report. The initial screening tests that she underwent are considered to be 99-percent accurate.
Afterward, however, a third, more conclusive test indicated that her unborn baby did not have the disorder, the report states.
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External review over termination of pregnancy at National Maternity Hospital, @FergalBowers reports | https://t.co/DodYpQnXPd pic.twitter.com/AF1l7LYCZY
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 16, 2019
The Irish Times reports the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK plans to conduct an independent review of the incident.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the matter is an “individual tragedy,” and expressed sympathy for the couple losing a “very wanted child.”
The whole situation is a tragedy, but just as tragic is that if the unborn baby had had Trisomy 18, there would be no story, no sympathy. In today’s culture, it is considered acceptable – compassionate, even — to violently destroy the life of an unborn baby with disabilities in an abortion, even late into the pregnancy. Society says it is ok to discriminate against a human being with disabilities, as long as they still are in the womb.
