Associated Press report in the [UK] Guardian, Good Morning America (ABC):

Far from the presidential campaign, Cindy McCain traveled to the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, to visit with about 100 children who were awaiting surgery for cleft palates and cleft lips. The operations will be provided by the U.S. charity Operation Smile, and will take place on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.

Cindy McCain is a member of Operation Smile’s board of directors. She and her husband, presidential hopeful John McCain, adopted a daughter from Bangladesh who was born with a facial deformity.

“When you see a child anywhere, say a child that doesn’t have food or a child with a cleft palate who’s been kept in a back room because the family is embarrassed or whatever it may be, it takes you back to really what’s basic and what’s really important,” Cindy McCain said.

(AP photo)

From the [UK] Guardian:

An MP with a cleft palate will introduce an amendment to the embryology bill that could reduce the number of late abortions on the grounds of disability.

Nick Palmer, the Labour MP for Broxtowe, wants doctors and clinics to be forced to provide mothers with the most up-to-date scientific and medical information about a fetal disability.

At present, abortions can be performed beyond the legal limit of 24 weeks if doctors agree that a foetus has a “serious handicap”, which can include conditions such as club foot and cleft palate.

Palmer, a parliamentary aide to the energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, told the Guardian: “I was struck by the fact that under current legislation it was possible to have a late abortion on the basis of conditions like a cleft palate, because I have never found it to be a serious life-destroying condition myself.

“I just feel that if mothers have the benefit of the full information about quality of life and prognosis they would be better able to make an informed decision.”

From the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald:

Expectant mothers will be able to insure their unborn babies against pregnancy complications, birth defects and even death under a new policy offered by insurance giant ING. The program is called the first of its kind in Australia, possibly the world, and will be aimed at the growing population of older mothers. Premiums rise with the age of the mother.

The policy will pay $50,000 to mothers whose children have disabilities such as blindness and deafness or other congenital malformations, including spina bifida, Down syndrome, cleft palate and heart disorders.

A spokeswoman for an Australian midwives association criticized the new program. “Insurance companies are going to go wherever they can to make a buck,” she said. “Fifty thousand dollars is not going to go very far in caring for a sick child. It is marketing fear and uncertainty when women are vulnerable during pregnancy.”

From the [UK] Daily Mail and Catholic News Service:

An amendment to restrict the termination of fetuses with disabilities was defeated in the UK House of Lords by a vote of 161-121 this week, in what was described as the first parliamentary battle over abortion laws in almost 20 years. The measure was proposed by peer Baroness Masham, and would have amended the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill to allow abortions for “serious and potentially life-threatening” conditions rather than for simply “serious conditions.”

She introduced the measure in the wake of reports that abortions were being carried out late in pregnancy on children with treatable disabilities such as missing digits, club foot or cleft palate. British law currently permits terminations as late as 39 weeks — virtually full term — if the fetus is thought to have a “serious disability,” but there is no definition of “serious.” Abortions in cases without disability are limited to 24 weeks gestation.

Said Baroness Masham: “Handicapped babies are still being aborted right up to full term, which is just horrific. I can think of no greater affront to equal opportunities for those who are disabled than the denial of the right to life itself.”

The vote was described by the Daily Mail as the “opening salvo in weeks of controversy.”

See also a letter in support of Baroness Masham by the Alive and Kicking campaign here.

In a statement released this week, the National Down Syndrome Congress urged that doctors and other healthcare workers be required to provide up-to-date and accurate information about the lives of people with Down syndrome to women who are undergoing prenatal testing.

The statement comes in response to a recent policy shift by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which vastly widens access to prenatal testing for all pregnant women. In its Practice Bulletin No. 88, published in December, ACOG recommended that invasive prenatal testing including amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling should be offered to all pregnant women regardless of age.

The December ACOG Practice Bulletin effectively makes all prenatal tests and screens available to all of the 6 million American women who get pregnant each year, thus establishing a new standard of care and ratcheting up expectations for insurance coverage and legal liability involving pregnancy.

In refuting what it called ACOG’s implication that “a baby with Down syndrome is a bad outcome that should be avoided,” the NDSC struck at the overwhelming correlation between prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome and abortion in this country. About 90 percent of women who learn that their fetuses have Down syndrome choose to abort their pregnancies.

“The NDSC believes that individuals with Down syndrome have innate worth and should be treated with dignity and respect,” said the statement, which was unanimously endorsed by the organization’s 22-member board of directors. Three members of the board themselves have Down syndrome.

(more…)

Associated Press story in the International Herald Tribune:

New Zealand authorities said Friday they refused a visa for a Samoan baby with severe deformities, saying that expert medical treatment would not help, despite the tens of thousands of U.S. dollars raised to assist the child. (more…)

From the (UK) Daily Mail:

The law governing the abortion of “seriously handicapped” babies should be made clearer, an influential committee of MPs [members of Parliament] is to say.

An inquiry will call for a clearer definition of disability, amid claims that growing numbers of fetuses are being aborted for conditions that can be cured.

The [House of] Commons science and technology committee is investigating whether the legal limit for abortion should be cut from 24 weeks of pregnancy, and whether a medical definition of disability is needed for late terminations.

(more…)