Ms Liz McDermott:

Well, anomalies or rape and incest, these kinds of things. If we introduce a flexible or wide-ranging abortion service, in other countries where that is the case I think the abortion rate settles at something like one in five, generally. That is not just in the UK but in most other countries. We have about one in 20 currently. It does not take a mathematical genius to see that one in five is an awful lot more than one in 20. I think it is inevitable that there would be more abortions and that certainly women would, perhaps as a knee-jerk reaction - I can understand why they make that decision - but they would opt for abortion because the supports are not there to continue on. It is not just during pregnancy but throughout life. If a woman has a child with a disability, there must be a proper level of support and care provided.

However, that is costly. There must be buy-in from the whole country. It is not a vote winner. It is not a politically attractive thing to do.