- The Iona Institute - https://ionainstitute.ie -

We aborted healthy babies after NHS mistakes, couples tell BBC

Two couples have told the BBC they went through with abortions after an NHS trust mistakenly told them their unborn babies had serious genetic conditions [1]. A very similar case arose in Ireland in 2019 after a healthy baby was aborted after being mistakenly diagnosed with a fatal condition at the National Maternity Hospital.

They say errors by doctors at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust led to them terminating their pregnancies.

Another family say a last-minute scan on the day they were due to have an abortion changed their minds and they are now the parents of a healthy nine-year-old boy.

One couples was offered a test, known as chorionic villus sampling (CVS), to check if their baby had any genetic or chromosomal conditions.

Two days later, the foetal care team at City Hospital in Nottingham told them the initial results indicated their daughter had a rare genetic condition called Patau’s Syndrome, which often results in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the baby dying shortly after birth.

The couple decided to have an abortion.

However, a second test, revealed to them six weeks later, showed their daughter had no chromosomal abnormality.