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LONDON, England, July 6, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A woman with Down syndrome is challenging a provision of the British Abortion Act 1967 that permits mothers to abort their disabled babies up to the moment of birth.
Heidi Carter (née Crowter), 26, appeared before the High Court of England and Wales in London today. Carter is a pro-life activist who has Down syndrome and is married to James Carter, who also has Down syndrome. She filed the joint challenge to the abortion law with Máire Lea-Wilson, mother of a boy with Down syndrome, last year. The two women issued the challenge on the basis that the Abortion Act is discriminatory toward the disabled.
“Basically, the court case is that a baby without Down syndrome can be aborted up to 24 weeks, but a baby like me and James can be aborted up to birth, which is discrimination,” she told BBC earlier this year.
Carter pointed out that the Abortion Act precludes the abortion of healthy unborn babies after the 24-week mark, but allows mothers to abort babies with disabilities — including Down syndrome, cleft lip, and club foot — up to delivery.
Lea-Wilson also noted the discriminatory view the government takes on children with disabilities. Her son Aidan was diagnosed with Down syndrome at 34 weeks’ gestation, and doctors repeatedly pressured her to abort him.
“I have two sons that I love and value equally, but the law does not value them equally … As a mother I will do all that I can to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of my son, Aidan,” Lea-Wilson said.
If Carter and Lea-Wilson win their case, abortions of babies with disabilities will be permitted only within the period of 24 weeks’ gestation.
In an interview with Sky News last year, Carter and her sister, Suzie Crowter, said they respect women’s choices and are looking simply for equality in the law between healthy and unhealthy unborn children. They want the Abortion Act amended to say that abortions are only allowed within the first 24 weeks of gestation, regardless of a baby’s health.
In a press release published last year Lea-Wilson said:
Our case is not about the rights and wrongs of abortion. It’s about the specific instance of inequality in the law, whereby for a child without a disability the legal limit for abortion is 24 weeks, but you can have an abortion right up to full term with a child that does have a disability.
Carter said in the press release:
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recently said that the United Kingdom should change its abortion law so that people like me aren’t singled out because of our disabilities. Sadly, the government decided to ignore their recommendations and didn’t change the law. So now, I am going to take the Government to court with other members of the Down’s Syndrome community to make sure that people aren’t treated differently because of their disabilities.
Both Carter and Lea-Wilson are personally committed to saving the lives of babies with disabilities like Down syndrome.
Carter attended school and worked in a children’s hair salon before the pandemic. She married James Carter last summer, with thousands watching her livestreamed wedding. She uses social media, with her Twitter and Facebook pages called “Living the Dream,” to show that the lives of people with Down syndrome are just as valuable as the lives of healthy people.
“We want to say to the world that we have a good quality of life,” Carter said of herself and her husband.
The so-called 'Equality Act' contains deadly poison for Christian democracy in the United States. And, its harmless-sounding name tries to hide this insidious reality.
But, unfortunately, Pelosi and company have JUST PASSED this morally repugnant bill in the US House of Representatives.
Pro-life and pro-family organizations, as well as Christian churches and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and freedom-loving groups everywhere, are now sounding the alarm.
Wake up, America, this is RED ALERT time!
This petition, therefore, calls on every US Senator to vigorously oppose and reject this bill.
Yes, it's THAT important.
The bill has nothing to do with "equality," or with extending the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which is how it is being touted by the leftists in the mainstream media.
It is, rather, one of the MOST EXTREME anti-life, pro-LGBT indoctrination bills ever proposed.
It has been described as a short-list of the worst possible elements of the Radical Left's agenda in Congress...and, REMEMBER, it has just passed the House!
We need to tell all US Senators, in no uncertain terms, that WE WILL NOT ACCEPT this outrageous attack on our freedoms and on life, itself!
SIGN AND SHARE THIS URGENT PETITION, TODAY!
And, after you have signed this petition, please CLICK HERE to DIRECTLY CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS, and tell them to oppose this assault on our freedoms of thought, speech, conscience and religion.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Below are some of the devastating critiques of 'Equality Act,' leveled by some of the best conservative, Christian minds in the country.
ON LIFE:
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), has written that the 'Equality Act' will include, "the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion this country has ever seen.”
"Under this big new umbrella of 'discrimination,'" continued Perkins, "any American who doesn’t want to fund, offer, perform, or participate in abortion on demand will have no real choice. They can conform — or they can be punished."
"Every wall that’s been built between abortion and the government would come crashing down, including the Hyde Amendment, the pro-conscience Weldon Amendment, and several international barriers that keep our country from exporting abortion."
ON CHRISTIANITY, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM and LGBT INDOCTRINATION:
Lloyd Marcus, of the American Thinker publication, has written about the 'Equality Act' in the following terms:
"LGBTQ enforcer and homosexual Democrat congressman David Cicilline is sponsor of the Equality Act. Cicilline's evil bill is the most aggressive assault on our constitutional religious liberties in U.S. history...If the Equality Act becomes the law of the land, every outrageous, tyrannical demand [of LGBTQ activists/enforcers] will become reality."
And, Liberty Counsel Action, a law and policy education, training and advocacy organization which, among other things, advances religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and the family has extensively criticized the 'Equality Act'.
On their webpage, dedicated to analyzing the 'Equality Act', which you can access below, Liberty Counsel Action state: "The 'Equality' Act' elevates 'sexual orientation and gender identity' to the same protected category as race. It will violate the religious freedom of Americans in numerous ways."
The go on to list the areas of life which this will affect: "It will impact all employers, including religious and non-profit organizations; contractors; houses of worship; public, private, and religious schools; curriculum; bathrooms; sports; daycare providers; shelters; hospitals; places of gatherings; entertainment providers; counselors; foster care and adoption; biological parents; landlords; anywhere providing a “good, service, or program,” including those advertised online; transportation drivers; and all local, state, and federal entities and many other areas."
And, as they note: "[T]here is NO RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION to this bill!"
Taking into account all of these potential threats to Christian democracy, Life and religious freedom, it is easy to see how the so-called 'Equality Act' has been called a "poison pill."
It is imperative that the US Senate vigorously reject this bill, AND EXPOSE IT FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS.
Please SIGN this urgent petition, TODAY!
The following links will take you to more information about the 'Equality Act'
The House version of the so-called 'Equality Act' (HR 5): http://lc.org/PDFs/Attachments2PRsLAs/2019/031819EqualityActHR5.pdf
Liberty Counsel Action's full analysis of the so-called 'Equality Act': https://www.lcaction.org/HR5 and https://lc.org/newsroom/details/022421-equality-act-guts-religious-freedom-1
LifeSiteNews opinion and analysis of the so-called 'Equality Act':
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-us-house-passes-pro-abortion-equality-act
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-names-pro-lgbt-equality-act-as-top-priority-if-elected
Carter’s mother, Liz Crowter, said that even though she struggled at first with her daughter’s Down syndrome diagnosis, Carter is “an absolute joy” and the family “can’t imagine life without her.”
Lea-Wilson similarly rejoices in her son’s life. “Aidan is a little ray of sunshine. He’s had some challenges and done so well so we’re just really proud of him. I would not change him for the world.”
Asked by Sky News what she would say to a mother thinking about aborting her disabled child, Carter said, “My message would be: just have the baby and don’t listen to the doctors because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”