The Government’s Department of Health has launched an extraordinary High Court bid seeking to maintain secrecy over the statistics on abortions of babies with cleft palate and club foot. It is now taking its own Information Tribunal to the Court to overturn a recent landmark Freedom of Information Act ruling.
The landmark ruling was issued in October 2009 after the Information Commissioner ordered the Government to release figures on the late abortions of foetuses with minor abnormalities. In what has been hailed as a victory for ‘transparency’, the Information Commissioner ordered the release of the information, comprising data on mothers who opt for termination because their unborn babies have been diagnosed with conditions such as a cleft palate and club foot.
In the case, the ProLife Alliance requested the release of the figures via the Freedom of Information Act because of its concerns about the amount of abortions taking place in circumstances where a foetus had been diagnosed with a minor abnormality. It was concerned that the circumstances laid out by the Abortion Act 1967 as to when a foetus could be aborted after 24 weeks (if there is a serious physical or mental abnormality) were being flouted to weed out ‘less than perfect’ babies, including those which had a cleft palate or a club foot. The Department of Health resisted the request for data, claiming that its release could lead to the identification of women who have had late abortions. Its lawyers had argued that the information was ‘sensitive, personal and private’.
Finally, the Tribunal ordered the Department of Health to release the data to the ProLife Alliance within 28 days.
(See the CCFON report)
However, ministers are resisting, arguing that disclosing the data could lead to the identification of women who have late abortions.
Julia Millington of the Pro-Life Alliance said:
‘It is a reprehensible waste of public money and court time to continue a fruitless battle to hide this information.
‘A country, committed to transparency and openness, accepts and expects that the same principles apply to abortion as to other areas of healthcare practice. These statistics should be made public.’
A spokesman for the Department of Health said:
‘Data on abortions is considered to be sensitive personal data. Releasing such data potentially increases the risk of identifying individuals. Having considered the implications, the Department has decided to appeal the Information Tribunal's judgment.’
The last time the Government published full figures on abortion was in 2005 "suppressing" any data where there were less than ten cases. The data was fully available for the last time in 2002. It showed that five foetuses were aborted because they had deformed feet, and a sixth because of a cleft lip and palate. According to the records, in 2000 and 2001, nine foetuses were aborted because of cleft lip and palate, while a further two were aborted for cleft lip alone.
Every year some 1,900 babies are aborted under Ground E (late terminations for disabled babies) of the Abortion Act, but it is now impossible to extrapolate late terminations for cleft palate or club feet, which doctors say are largely treatable conditions.
Cleft palate can be corrected by, among other methods, surgery, usually performed between 6 and 12 months. Club foot can be treated through surgical and non-surgical treatment and the Ponseti Method.
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