Curate wins challenge over late abortion
A female curate has won the right to a judicial review into the decision to abort a foetus with a cleft palate late in pregnancy.
Joanna Jepson, herself born with facial deformities, claims that the abortion breaches abortion law.
Mr Jenson has won the right to challenge in court police who refused to prosecute doctors for performing the late abortion.
Ms Jepson is now planning to sue the Chief Constable of West Mercia police over the incident.
The abortion was carried out when the woman, from Herefordshire, was more than 24 weeks pregnant.
Twenty-four weeks is the legal limit for abortions unless there is a risk of serious disability.
Ms Jenson argues that it is wrong to abort a foetus simply because it is disfigured and says that corrective surgery is available to treat a cleft palate.
A judge rejected her initial application for a judicial review last month. But at the High Court in London today, Lord Justice Rose and Mr Justice Jackson reversed the initial decision.
Ms Jepson welcomed the court’s ruling, saying: “I have been encouraged by the public’s support. I hope that we shall succeed at trial and recognise again the value and dignity of our common humanity, disabled or able-bodied, no matter what we look like.”
Ms Jepson, 27, was born with a congenital jaw defect and says that, after years of bullying, corrective surgery changed her life.
The curate of St Michael’s Church in Chester insist she is not anti-abortion but fears that allowing a baby with a cleft palate to be aborted late is getting dangerously close to designer babies.
West Mercia Police argue that they took the best legal and medical advice in deciding not to prosecute.
Neither the mother’s identity, nor the date of the operation can be revealed, for legal reasons.
