IS it too easy to get an abortion?

[youngmafbog]

An investigation into claims that some doctors are granting women illegal abortions based on the sex of their unborn baby has been launched by the Department of Health.

It has been sparked by an undercover newspaper (Telegraph) study into sex-selection abortions, secretly filming doctors at British clinics agreeing to terminate foetuses because they were either male or female.

The doctors were also allegedly recorded admitting they were prepared to falsify paperwork to arrange the illegal abortions.

I cannot see any mention of the NHS but even so should these doctors be allowed to continue practicing or should they be struck off.

My opionion is that this is a step too far. Call me old fashioned but if a parent is willing to abort just due to the sex then I dont thing that person would be a fit person whatever. They should therefore be steralised.

If we are not careful next step is designer babies.

[Old_Geezer]

If society sees nothing wrong with abortion on demand then surely it can't see anything wrong with the reason somone goes ahead with one ? Just seen as a form of late contraception these days isn't it ?

[d9f1c7]

There are acceptable reasons for abortion but inconvenience or incorrect spec are not among them. Anyone who would do that is not a fit person to be a parent anyway.

[ummmm]

It's not easy to get an abortion on the NHS. It's not a case of saying 'I don't want it' You have to explain yourself to two doctors. I know someone who was refused an abortion.

[Old_Geezer]

Couldn't have gone to the right doctors I suppose. As I understand it it is 'a woman's right to choose' so it won't just be on health grounds will it. So it must be more or less on demand if you jump the right hoops; isn't it ?

[ummmm]

You could lie, I suppose. The doctors have to agree with your reason. The same questions are not asked if you go private.

[Kristal53]

You can tell the sex of a baby 12 weeks into gestation with an AFT (amniocentisis) - therefore an abortion -however heinous - is NOT illegal at this stage. Doctors aborting any baby under the legal timelimit of 24 weeks ( again disgracefull, but its the law) would not have to falsify paperwork as it would not be illegal.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph....octors-to-police.html

Call me racist if you must, but this practice is common amongst some Asian communities, who class girls a bit of a burden. (for want of a better word).

It's all down to their assumption that boys will be able to provide for them in their old age and also they don't have to provide a dowry for their daughters when they marry.

[andy-hughes]

I think you are being a tad over-sensitive AOG. Advising a simple fact is not racist. I have never known you to qualify your views on first posting - only robustly to defend them if challenged - don't tell me you are going soft????

[Ankou]

"There are acceptable reasons for abortion but inconvenience or incorrect spec are not among them"

really? some people may decide they cannot cope with a child who might have downs or another syndrome that would affect their living conditions. i don't think it is as black and white as that.

[jno]

no need for the parents to lie if the doctors are ready to do it for them (for money), ummmm.

OG, I don't see why the government shouldn't specify acceptable reasons for having one - and why it shouldn't conclude that a reason that might lead to a gender imbalance isn't acceptable.

[d9f1c7]

Who mentioned downs Ankou? I'm referriong to abortiion for no other reason than the child would be an inconevnience or it is the wrong sex. Other reasons for abortion are not what I'm referring to here.

[Mosaic]

Not like me to side with AOG.....but it is absolutely the case that desire for boy-children makes selective abortion an open secret in the Indian subcontinent and China. Where wealthy emigrants have settled in numbers, the practice still follows. Originating in poverty and in the one-child regime of China, it's now used to engineer inheritances.
Among the poor in the east female children might be killed or sold. Even now in the glorious 21st century with all its wealth and knowledge.
I don't like the idea of abortion, but an unwanted child might live a short and miserable life.
I also don't like the normalising of what seems like a very twisted view on our wonderful human process of existence. it also sounds like people who have too much time and money on their hands.
I don't think choosing a selective abortion makes a person fit to be sterilised as OP suggests. But if this is occurring in the UK, then I'd be happy to see some forced re-education occurring with the guilty parties (clinical and parent) doing 9 months of social care work in the Gorbals. Per abortion.

[Ankou]

so what do you mean by an inconvenience then.

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// I think you are being a tad over-sensitive AOG. Advising a simple fact is not racist. ///

Not over-sensitive Andy just cautious, i know from experience that one has only to accuse certain factions and one is immediately labelled 'RACIST'.

Anyway it save the guilty parties from bothering to type their usual accusations.

And of course it takes the sting out of their tails, and how they must hate it when they don't 'get in' first.

[Ankou]

historicallly the birth of males has been preferable to that of girls, look at henry vii for heavens sake! today some cultures still hold on to that practice so i don't think there is any temerity in mentioning it.

[ummmm]

Inconvenience - unplanned?

[Ankou]

could be ummmm, you (we/us) are either prochoice or not i think.

[ummmm]

I'm pro choice. Contraception does fail sometimes and babies are a huge commitment. I'm anti irresponsible. People who are too careless to think about the consequences shouldn't be given an easy time.

I'm against aborting a baby because they are not the preferred gender.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....s-aborting-girls.html

This is written by the author of the novel 'Witness The Night', Kishwar Desai.