"That Child Had No Choice"

So said Diane Abbott on Any Questions, about the baby severely disabled due to having had a mother who drank heavily during pregnancy.

 

Like Simon Hughes and Dominic Grieve, both of whom have fairly pro-life voting records, Abbott did not see the criminal law as the best way of discouraging such activity.

 

But her broad view on the matter was as clear as it was, on one level, surprising.

 

Unlike her strong support of school uniforms as egalitarian, a view that she has expressed many times, the idea of there being more than one person in this kind of situation represents a significant departure on her part.

 

Along with the question of sex-selective abortion, this case indicates that we are living through one of the great shifts on these issues.

Notice that this court action is being brought by a local authority. Since it is in the North West of England, that is probably a Labour-controlled local authority. Whatever its political composition, its social services department will of course be staffed by certificated social workers.

 

Most people simply do not accept that a woman has a right to choose to poison her unborn child with alcohol, or to abort that child for being the wrong sex.

 

Gently, but firmly, the question therefore needs to be asked, "Why not?"