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PR: Aborting the Disabled ‘an Affront to People with Disabilities’
14.07.2007
Alison Davis of the No Less Human disability rights group has said that aborting people because of their disability was an affront to all members of the community who are disabled and that it sent them the message that they are inferior to, and of less value than, the able-bodied. She was addressing a large crowd in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin, at the launch of the LifeAbility Campaign organised by the pro-life group Youth Defence in conjunction with disability-rights campaigners.
Ms Davis was the keynote speaker at the event. She told the packed room of the experiences of Britain, which had recently seen its Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) consider a proposal calling for the killing of children who had been born with a disability, especially those who were premature. When Ms Davis, a spina bifida sufferer who uses a wheelchair, went to present the RCOG with a petition opposing their stance, officials refused her admittance as she would have needed assistance at the entrance with her wheelchair.
More than 90 per cent of children with spina bifida or Down’s syndrome are aborted in the U.K. following the British Abortion Act which permits very late-term abortions of babies with a disability. It has also led to the situation where parents are being castigated for refusing to abort their children who suffer severe disability.
The LifeAbility campaign hopes to create awareness of the threat to the right-to-life of people with disabilities in Ireland and is being rolled out throughout the summer across the country.
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