Wednesday 31 August 2011

Antenatal Results & Choices (ARC) is actively complicit in the fatal discrimination against disabled people enabled by legal abortion

SPUC is re-launching its information on charities as an online index, with new entries and updated information added as and when new information is received. Today's charity is the Antenatal Results & Choices (ARC).

Antenatal Results & Choices (ARC) was founded as “Support Around Termination for Foetal Abnormality” (SAFTA). It claims to be "the only national charity which provides non-directive support and information to parents throughout the antenatal testing process."

In July 2008 ARC lobbied MPs, urging them to vote against amendments which sought to curb abortion in limited ways. ARC's briefing for MPs cited various arguments in favour of abortion on the grounds of disability, such as:
  • "forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy when the fetus was known to be seriously abnormal would be ‘inhumane’."
  • "the majority of women are in favour of termination being available if a significant disability is diagnosed."
  • "preventing abortion on the grounds of fetal abnormality after 24 weeks would be extremely detrimental to those women who discover an abnormality at a late stage."
  • "Removing fetal abnormality as grounds for abortion at all gestations would particularly affect those parents who know they are carriers of a genetic disorder and risk having a baby with the condition."
  • "Abortion on grounds of fetal abnormality is not eugenics".
SPUC comment: ARC is actively complicit in the fatal discrimination against disabled people enabled by legal abortion.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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