It has become a familiar scene. Two parents, expecting a child, go for a scan. They imagine that the doctor or nurse will be on their side; but they receive another kind of response, as it’s quietly but firmly hinted that they might like to book an abortion. Often – though not always – this is because the child has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
This is what happened to Cheryl Bilsborrow, who told the Sunday Times that she was pressured to have an abortion just days before she gave birth. “The nurse reminded me I could have a termination right up to 40 weeks if the baby had Down’s. I just said to her, ‘I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,’ but it did make me feel very anxious.”
Her son Hector is now age two. According to the Sunday Times, he “loves music, is on the books of a modelling agency and has been described as “the cutest boy in the universe’.”