A Scottish mother who ignored medical pressure to abort her unborn baby has given birth to a healthy boy. In Ireland earlier this year a health baby was aborted after the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street told the parents that their baby had a so-called ‘fatal foetal abnormality’.

Lauren Webster, 21 from Cumbernauld near Glasgow, was asked repeatedly by medical staff if she wanted an abortion after a 13 week scan showed her unborn baby had a ‘bladder obstruction’, with a low chance of survival and could possibly be suffering from the genetic disorder, Edward’s Syndrome.

Ms Webster, however, had a ‘gut feeling’ her baby would survive and resisted the pressure to abort.

Doctors were left stunned when her son, Ollie, was born with no health problems at all, as his ‘bladder obstruction’ had managed to correct itself and the genetic disorder never materialised.

SPUC Scotland Director of Communications and Campaigns, Michael Robinson, said: “The scandalous reality behind the veneer of choice, is that pregnant women are increasingly exploited and pressured into abortion. Recent research by the UK charity, Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH) has found that 75% of female clients state that they had an abortion because they had felt pressure from a loved one. Whilst pressure and coercion can come from a variety of sources, intimate partners are the main culprit.

He added: “The stories now surfacing of these young women who have been pressured to abort their children, show not only an entire lack of compassion and care from medical staff, but also just how seriously mistaken medical staff can be.”