Pregnant women with fetal abnormalities: The forgotten people in the abortion debate

Abstract

• Abortion law reform focuses on early abortion. Women wanting to have a family who have a fetal abnormality detected later in pregnancy are neglected in the debate and harmed by the consequences of current legal uncertainty. • Unclear abortion laws compromise: the quality of prenatal testing; management when an abnormality is found; and patient care, through obstetricians' fears of legal repercussions. • Women carrying a fetus with an abnormality are being denied abortion, even when the abnormality is so severe that nontreatment would be an option if the baby were born. • Many women are likely to refuse to consider motherhood if they are denied appropriate prenatal testing and access to abo..