{"id":236356,"date":"2020-12-15T17:32:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T23:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=236356"},"modified":"2020-12-15T15:35:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T21:35:33","slug":"royal-college-dont-pressure-abortion-prenatal-screenings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/royal-college-dont-pressure-abortion-prenatal-screenings\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal College of OBGYNs in UK: Don&#8217;t pressure parents into abortion after prenatal screenings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New guidelines released by the UK\u2019s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) seek to stop medical professionals from pressuring parents into abortion based on non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIPT is a non-diagnostic screening test that cannot diagnose or say with certainty whether a preborn baby has a genetic condition such as Down syndrome, but by looking at baby\u2019s cells found in maternal blood can identify when a mother has an elevated chance of having a baby with such a condition. Nearly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/factcheck-babies-abortion-3823611-Feb2018\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">90% of babies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the UK prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the RCOG <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcog.org.uk\/en\/guidelines-research-services\/guidelines\/consensus-statement-prenatal-screening\/#educationtraining\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">directive<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> released December 2nd, parents of preborn babies who have higher risk through NIPT have reported that doctors have subtly or overtly pressured them to abort. Despite expressing their desire to keep their babies, parents \u201chave reported being asked repeatedly if they want further diagnostic tests or an abortion. They report having their decisions challenged and being pressured into changing their minds.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The new RCOG guidelines are clear: \u201cThis should not happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/down-syndrome-abortion-arrangements\/\">Mom pressured to stop treating son with Down syndrome: \u2018Make arrangements for his death\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The directive also emphasizes that the limitations of NIPT should be known by all staff, and that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">parents who want to know for sure whether their baby has one of the syndromes listed in NIPT results should seek diagnostic testing. \u201cWomen and their partners with a higher chance NIPT result who wish to know for sure if their baby has a one [<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sic<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">] of the conditions can choose to have an amniocentesis or CVS.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right to Life UK <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rcog-tells-health-professionals-to-stop-pressuring-women-into-disability-selective-abortions\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">points out<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that bioethics groups have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nuffieldbioethics.org\/blog\/nipt-private\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">expressed concerns<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about the accuracy of NIPT being oversold and used to diagnose preborn babies \u2014\u00a0and likewise, to pressure parents to abort.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWomen are making life or death decisions influenced by outdated and prejudicial views by many medical professionals. Expectant women are not given accurate information about the reality of life with Down\u2019s syndrome. There is very limited support and an overriding assumption to terminate,\u201d said Nicola Enoch, founder of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/positiveaboutdownsyndrome.co.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Positive About Down Syndrome (PADS)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pressure placed on expectant mothers of children with Down syndrome is not unique to the UK. After Ms. Yami Johnson of New York had a prenatal screening, doctors presented news of her preborn baby\u2019s Down syndrome as a grave matter. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They offered me termination and reminded me I had that option every week until I passed the last date. They even scheduled an appointment to discuss a termination without my consent. I felt like the life of my child was not supported and I felt pressurized to terminate,\u201d Johnson said, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctors-offered-abortion-week-down-syndrome\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live Action News<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2020, the number of abortions in the UK are set to reach record levels for the second year in a row, as Live Action News\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-abortions-2020-beat-high-diy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a rise that coincides with the approval of \u201cDIY\u201d at-home abortions introduced in March during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the number of abortions committed in the UK was the highest recorded in a single calendar year, at 200,608.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New guidelines released by the UK\u2019s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) seek to stop medical professionals from pressuring parents into abortion based on non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). NIPT is a non-diagnostic screening test that cannot diagnose or say with certainty whether a preborn baby has a genetic condition such as Down syndrome, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":224058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7,5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UK&#039;s Royal College of OBGYNs: Don&#039;t pressure parents into abortion after prenatal screenings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines seek to stop medical professionals from pressuring parents into abortion based on testing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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