Two couples aborted their babies after being told by the NHS that they had life-limiting genetic disorders, diagnoses that turned out to be wrong. An investigation into the local NHS authority where the abortions took place is ongoing.
Couple Carly and Carl were offered a chorionic villus sampling (CVS) test in 2019 to check if their unborn baby had a genetic or chromosomal condition. The test was carried out by the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
An initial result indicated that their baby had Patau’s Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that disrupts development and often leads to stillbirth, miscarriage, or death shortly after birth.
The couple faced “the most impossible choice we’ve ever had to make. We thought the best option was to end the pregnancy because the baby was suffering.”
A conversation with a foetal care consultant informed the parents that their baby would have severe care needs if there wasn’t a miscarriage. They were also told (wrongly) that the more conclusive test result to come later would show the same result.
“There was no good outcome, we had no hope”, Carly explained to the BBC. Their baby, a daughter, was aborted at 14 weeks gestation.
However, six weeks later they were delivered the devastating news that the first test result was wrong and that their daughter had no chromosomal abnormality.
When they asked the present doctor if their baby might have survived, they were told: “Well, you could have miscarried anyway.” The reply stayed with Carly, who thought it “almost malicious”.
“Deficiencies in care, knowledge and process”
An investigation into the events that led to the abortion found it “highly probable that the pregnancy was, in fact, chromosomally normal”, and it blamed “a series of deficiencies in care, knowledge and process”.
Anthony May, chief executive at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said it had “learnt from this tragic case… Since 2019, we have implemented the findings from this incident, ensuring we have robust processes for checking, communicating and monitoring results.”
The BBC also reports that two other families experienced similar situations at the same NHS trust. One case saw a baby aborted in 2017 following another test wrongly diagnosing a genetic condition.
Another family was pressured to have an abortion, which they ultimately refused, after a test indicated a life-limiting condition. Their baby was born with no health issues.
The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is currently under investigation, which is looking into the maternity care given to over 2,000 families at its two hospitals. The conclusions of the report are expected in June 2026.
“Parents were cruelly misled”
Daniel Frampton, SPUC’s Editorial Officer, said: “These tragic cases point to a crisis in NHS maternity care which is failing parents and their unborn children.
“Increasingly we see how many unborn babies are not being given the chance at life that they deserve. Many doctors are too willing to give up on unborn babies, treating any child with a problem condition as a burden or a hopeless case.
“SPUC has highlighted numerous instances of parents being pressured by medics to abort unborn babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. The discrimination against Down’s syndrome appears to be endemic at many hospitals.
“As SPUC reported last week, the head of the world’s oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in Dublin said that the Republic of Ireland should legalise the abortion of unborn babies with Down’s syndrome.
“If this is the common attitude of many medical professionals, what occurred in Nottingham, though shocking, is hardly a surprise.”
