Tag Archives: Mercy

Oh, this is just completely disgusting to think about. 

Women who delay motherhood have led to a sharp rise in the number of babies diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome over the past 20 years.

Records show a 71 per cent increase in cases detected in the womb – up from 1,075 in 1989/90 to 1,843 in 2007/8.

But the rate of infants actually born with Down’s has fallen slightly over the same period owing to improved testing and subsequent abortions.

The proportion of couples diagnosed with a Down’s pregnancy who decided to terminate has remained constant at 92 per cent.

But the actual number of abortions has risen because more babies are now being diagnosed with Down’s, the study showed.

The authors concluded: ‘Increases in maternal age would have caused a 48 per cent increase in births with Down’s Syndrome in the absence of terminations between 1989/91 and 2005/7.

‘However, terminations of Down’s pregnancies due to an increase and improvements in antenatal screening have caused the number of live births with Down’s remain constant.’

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