The head of a Dublin hospital has admitted that nearly all babies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome there are killed through abortion.
Professor Fergal Malone is the chairman of the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the RCSI School of Medicine, as well as Master (Chief Executive Officer) of the Rotunda Hospital. According to the Irish Times, 95% of pregnancies of children with Down syndrome at Rotunda Hospital end in abortion, even though Malone claims no one is pressured into a particular decision.
“The 95 per cent who choose to travel do reach that decision themselves. We very much do not advocate for termination,” he said. “The reality is that the vast majority choose to terminate. I don’t have a view on whether that is the right thing. We don’t advocate for it, that is just the lived experience.”
Yet in the same interview, Malone slammed the three-day waiting period required before an abortion can be carried out, calling it “paternalistic,” and thereby calling into question his supposed lack of bias towards abortion.
Malone did not mention Down Syndrome Ireland or any other available resources for families who are given such a diagnosis, even though parents have called the organization a “lifeline.”
Dublin is in the Republic of Ireland and is not part of the United Kingdom. In 2018, Ireland legalized abortion with the repeal of the 8th Amendment, though it seems many voters did not have a clear understanding of what the bill would do. Repealing the 8th Amendment allowed legal abortion through 12 weeks of pregnancy, and it also denied victims of abortion the right to a proper burial. It also struck down protections for abortion survivors as well as parental notification of abortion for girls under the age of 16.
Ireland isn’t the only nation that has claimed such a high rate of abortion for children with Down syndrome. In 2017, Iceland made headlines for boasting about being a country “free” of Down syndrome; in reality, the country has a nearly 100% rate of abortion for children who were diagnosed prenatally with the condition. In the U.S., it is estimated that 67% of babies who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome are killed.
