Woman With Down Syndrome To Take Abortion Case To European Court Of Human Rights

Woman With Down Syndrome To Take Abortion Case To European Court Of Human Rights

Harold Hutchison on May 20, 2023

A woman with Down Syndrome took her case against British abortion laws to the European Court of Human Rights, according to a press release.

Heidi Crowter, a 27-year-old mother from Coventry, England, announced the appeal to the ECHR this week following a November ruling by England’s Court of Appeal against her challenge to laws that permit abortion to the moment of birth, according to a release by Don’t Screen Us Out. Abortion is usually restricted after 24 weeks in the United Kingdom, but for disabilities, including Down Syndrome, it is allowed up to the moment of birth, Catholic News Agency reported.

Crowter appealed to the ECHR after the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court refused to hear the case, BBC reported. British courts ruled against Crowter and Maire Lea-Wilson, whose son has Down Syndrome, in a similar case in September 2021, according to the BBC.

“It’s inspiring to see that Heidi is now going to be taking her landmark case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg,” Lynn Murray, the mother of a child with Down Syndrome, told Catholic News Agency. “As a mother of a 23-year-old daughter who has Down syndrome, I see every day the unique value she brings to our family and the positive impact she has on others around her.”

The ruling by the ECHR would be binding in 46 European countries, according to CNA.

Don’t Screen Us Out noted that 3,370 abortions were conducted because the child would have been born with a disability in 2021, while the number of late-term abortions (past 24 weeks) of unborn children with disabilities rose to 274 from 229 in 2021.