Friday, April 22, 2011

Late-term abortion privacy debate

I had a very serious piece published today on The Guardian's CiF website. It's about the Information Tribunal's decision to release detailed breakdowns on late term abortions for medical reasons to the Pro-Life Alliance. [Yes, I can see the flaw in this plan too!] And extra extra special thanks to the women who were kind enough to let me interview them yesterday about their own experiences and feelings.

I'd advise NOT reading the comments if you want a calm stress-free afternoon. And if you want to comment on it here where I get to moderate the comments and won't be publishing* lies, derailments or other general hate mail, go ahead!

*Unsure about my comment policy? Think my refusal to publish your comment "probably a lesbian, has fat arms" might be infringing on your freedom of speech? Do read this.

3 comments:

Unknown said...
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tenderhooligan said...

Well done for taking on CiF. I never read the comments any more. It's just not good for my health.

Shona said...

Hi Kate,

I read your article after @mesamb retweeted it. I am the Sheffield representative for the Myotonic dystrophy support group and as I am unfortunately very experienced at IVF with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), I often get people calling me about fertility related issues. Some people who call me only discovered Myotonic dystrophy (a kind of muscular dystrophy) was in their family when they were pregnant. (Pregnancy can sometimes make symptoms worse).

Sadly some poor ladies make the decision to terminate late in the pregnancy. I can tell how heartbroken they are and can't imagine how hard it must be to make that decision. I hate it when people feel the need to pass judgement on these women. None of us know what we would do, should we find ourselves in that position. We may think we know, but you can never be sure until it happens to you.

I was fortunate I got diagnosed before I decided to start a family so was able to choose IVF with PGD. The baby inside me now doesn't carry the abnormal myotonic dystrophy gene.

If anyone wants more information about PGD they can head over to my blog.

Thanks for writing your article it was very interesting and I plan on becoming a regular follower of your blog.

Shona