How Many Babies Are Aborted Due to Down Syndrome

ON TUESDAY, THE Salve the 8th Campaign launched a new campaign in relation to the upcoming plebiscite on abortion.

The national campaign to defeat the referendum on the Eighth Amendment involves two billboard posters which are beingness put up across the country.

The Relieve the 8th campaign said in a printing release:

The billboards, launched after consultation with Disability Voices for Life, a group representing families that include somebody with a disability, reveal on [sic] the shocking increase in the numbers of abortions carried out, and the heart-breaking rate of babies with Down syndrome being aborted, after abortion was legalised in Britain.

Relieve the 8th adds:

The billboards capture some stark facts that are being hidden from the fence. I quotes the shocking statistic that 1 in every 5 babies is aborted in Britain, while the other features Joseph Cronin, a Donegal boy with Downwardly syndrome, and gives a human being face to the heart breaking fact that ninety% of babies with the status have their lives ended before nascence in other jurisdictions.

Ane of the posters says:

In Britain, 90% of babies with Down Syndrome are aborted.

Where does the effigy come from?

On this poster, the quote has a source (on the bottom right-hand side) beneath information technology: 2013 Bruce Enquiry (sic).

This appears to refer to a 2013 contained report into abortion on the grounds of inability, which was carried out by a cross-party group of MPs chaired by Fiona Bruce, a Conservative MP. She is the former chair of an breezy cross-political party British parliamentary pro-life grouping.

Though the report is called a 'parliamentary inquiry', it is not an official government inquiry.

The percent of abortions

The Bruce inquiry report includes this line (words in assuming are its emphasis):

A considerable amount of evidence was presented on the experience of expecting a kid with Down's Syndrome: approximately 90% of babies with a definite diagnosis of Down's syndrome are aborted; about xxx% of births of children with Down's Syndrome have no prenatal diagnosis.

It appears that the Save the 8th campaign billboard is quoting from this line.

Notwithstanding, the source fabric (pointed out in a footnote) to this line is the National Downwardly Syndrome Cytogenetic Annals (NDSCR) for England and Wales 2010 Annual Report.

This footnote reads:

After the prenatal diagnosis of Down'southward Syndrome 91% of affected pregnancies are terminated and ix% are continued. Some of the continued pregnancies miscarry naturally, some finish as all the same births, and approximately vi% of prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome end in live births. Quoted from page iv of Morris JK, The National Down's syndrome Cytogenetic Annals for England and Wales 2010 Annual Report. Queen Mary University of London, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry 2011 and Professor Joan Morris, Oral Evidence Session 4, pages 82-3

As the source textile for the data quoted on the Save the 8th poster is not strictly the 'Bruce' inquiry just in fact the NDSCR, we will be dealing with the latter study.

The NDSCR annual report does not use the discussion "babies" or "baby", merely refers to "prenatal diagnosis" and uses the words"pregnancies" and "fetal".

The utilize of the give-and-take 'infant' is significant as there is currently a case before the Supreme Courtroom on the meaning of the word 'unborn' in the Constitution.

A ruling by the High Court in 2016 found that references to the "unborn" in the Constitution meant an unborn kid. Now the Supreme Court is to examine the ruling, in which gauge Richard Humphreys ruled that the apply of the give-and-take "unborn" in Bunreacht na hÉireann meant an "unborn child", with the unborn'south rights extending beyond the right to life.

• Read our explainer on this hither

While the Supreme Court wrestles with this, currently the word 'infant' is typically used to refer to a child that has been born. Under dictionary definitions, 'babe' refers to an 'extremely young kid'.

In essence, while the affiche uses the give-and-take 'infant', what it really ways is 'unborn child' or 'foetus'.

Still, the Save the 8th entrada told TheJournal.ie:

Everyone describes their preborn child as a baby.

As we will come across, the poster as well refers to "babies with Downwards Syndrome", although what it is referring to is a percentage of pregnancies given a prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome.

Prenatal diagnosis and postnatal diagnosis

The 90% termination rate in the NDSCR written report and the billboard affiche only refers to prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.

The information shows that not all children with Down syndrome in England and Wales are diagnosed prenatally.

On page 7 of The NDSCR for England and Wales 2010 Annual Report, it says:

In 2010, 1,868 Down syndrome diagnoses were made, 1,188 (64%) prenatally and 680 (36%) postnatally

In the 2010 report, of the 680 cases where Down syndrome was diagnosed postnatally, there were 651 live births and 29 still births/foetal deaths.

There were 1,188 that were diagnosed prenatally. Out of this, 942 pregnancies were terminated; there were 63 live births; 37 still births/miscarriage; and 195 with an 'unknown outcome'.

The study says that six% of those with 'unknown outcomes' are likely to result in a live birth.

And then the 90% referred to in the poster is 90% of those diagnosed prenatally.*

• In 2010, that is in fact xc% of 64% (prenatal diagnoses), which equates to 57% of all pregnancies which have the potential to issue in a Down syndrome diagnosis.

The NDSCR annual reports show that every year, not all diagnoses of Down syndrome are fabricated prenatally.

Merely of these prenatal diagnoses, the vast majority are terminated:

For example:

• 2009: Prenatal diagnosis: 1,171 (terminations – 876), postnatal diagnoses: 716
• 2010: Prenatal: 1,188 (terminations - 942 ), postnatal: 680
• 2011: Prenatal: 1,211 (terminations – 931), postnatal: 662
• 2012: Prenatal: 1,259 (terminations – 983), postnatal: 723

(*Just to annotation – you'll run into that these numbers don't add up to a 90% termination rate or over for prenatal diagnosis. This is considering at the time the report was published, the registrydid not have the full numbers, it says. Nevertheless, the reports all project a termination rate of prenatal diagnoses for the specific year, based on the charge per unit in previous years, and they are always ninety% or higher up – you can read all of the almanac reports here.)

What about Ireland?

What we can't infer at this point is whether these outcomes in England and Wales would exist reflected to the same percentage in Ireland, should ballgame legislation allow terminations up to 12 weeks (the timeframe which has been put forward by the 8th Amendment Commission).

This is due to a number of factors.

Firstly, the timing of tests for Down syndrome.

The HSE says that ideally, people will take antenatal screenings past the finish of the outset trimester, which is 13 weeks and 6 days. About women are screened betwixt 11 to 13 weeks, and screenings are possible upwards to xx weeks of pregnancy.

Down Syndrome Republic of ireland says that:

Sometimes babies with Down's syndrome are identified during pregnancy equally a issue of pre-natal tests.  In the majority of cases, the presence of Down's syndrome is identified before long after birth from the infant'south clinical features and confirmed with a blood test.

There are 2 types of diagnostic tests – chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis. Of the two, CVS can be performed after ten weeks of pregnancy. Approximately one adult female in 100 volition have a miscarriage afterwards having either of these tests.

However, testing is continuing to get better in this surface area.

For instance the NIPT exam for Down Syndrome, which is offered by the NHS in the U.k., tests cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA), which comes from the placenta. An NHS factsheet says that cffDNA "reaches  the required level needed to test for Downward syndrome by 10 weeks' gestation in most pregnancies".

With regard to Irish women currently travelling away, the Irish Independent reported this week that 83 Irish gaelic women ended their pregnancy over Down's syndrome over the period of two years.

Because not all diagnoses of Down syndrome are given prenatally, we simply cannot say at this bespeak if in Ireland the charge per unit of termination in every case of Down syndrome diagnosis would exist 90%.

By comparing, in the USA, according to a written report of 24 studies on the topic:

The weighted mean termination rate was 67% (range: 61%–93%) amid seven population-based studies, 85% (range: 60%–xc%) among nine infirmary-based studies, and 50% (range: 0%–100%) amidst eight anomaly-based studies. Bear witness suggests that termination rates have decreased in recent years. Termination rates also varied with maternal age, gestational historic period, and maternal race/ethnicity.

What does the Salvage the eighth Campaign say?

In answer to an e-mail query, the Salvage the eighth entrada said that the statistic on the poster:

This is an annual report by the same people who carried out the 2010 report that is referenced in the inquiry report chaired by Fiona Bruce MP, but for a different year.

The outcomes are similar in the two reports – in 2013, it says that the termination charge per unit for prenatally-diagnosed Down syndrome remains loftier:

The proportion of women having a termination after a prenatal diagnosis of Downwardly syndrome has decreased from 92% in 1989-2010 to xc% in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

And so although the billboard poster itself refers to the 2013 Bruce Enquiry (sic), their written report itself refers to the 2010 NDSCR written report.

And the details differ very footling between this and the 2013 NDSCR study which the Save the 8th campaign referred the states to in reply to our query well-nigh the source for the statistic.

The termination rate in prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome is at least 90% in both reports.

The NDSCR for England and Wales'southward final report was in 2014. That year, 65% of all diagnoses of Down's syndrome in England and Wales were made prenatally. In that location were i,886 diagnoses of Down syndrome in those countries that year.

The majority – 78% – were diagnosed subsequently the first trimester in England, compared to 26% in Wales.

Is the statement on the billboard correct?

The statement on the billboard poster is:

In Britain, 90% of babies with Down's syndrome are aborted.

On a basic level, the argument does not clarify that the 90% rate refers to prenatally diagnosed Down syndrome.

In club to be fully right, the poster could say:

In England and Wales, xc% of pregnancies with prenatally diagnosed Down syndrome are terminated.

The statistic of 90% is correct when referring to prenatally diagnosed Down syndrome.

However, this is non a description available to members of the public passing past these billboards.

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Read: The Supreme Court instance that needs to exist resolved before the Eighth Amendment referendum>

Read: 'Nosotros're asking people to trust women': Repeal referendum to be held earlier the cease of May>

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Source: https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-babies-abortion-3823611-Feb2018/

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