Select Page

Irish High Court hears case of woman who had an abortion following mistaken disability diagnosis

An Irish couple who aborted their child after they were mistakenly told he had a severe disability have settled their High Court actions.

The couple, Rebecca Price and Patrick Kiely, launched separate actions against Merrion Fetal Health, a private facility in Dublin, five of its medical consultants, and the National Maternity Hospital, with which the clinic is affiliated.

After talks Mr Justice Paul Coffey was told that the defendants – five consultants who operate under the Merrion Fetal Health Clinic, as well as the National Maternity Hospital and a Glasgow laboratory, the Greater Glasgow Health Board – conceded liability in full. 

Speaking outside the court on June 23rd, Price and Kiely’s solicitor said the couple had asked to meet  with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly “to ensure this ‘never event’ never happens again”.

A misdiagnosis

In March 2019, the woman underwent an abortion because she claims she had been told her child had Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards’ syndrome. The woman alleges that a week after her 12-week scan on 21 February, she was informed that a DNA test had detected the genetic disability in her son.

A little over 13 in 100 babies born alive with Edwards’ syndrome survive beyond their first birthday.

The mother said that, after an additional scan, she was advised to undergo a prenatal test known as chorionic villus sampling (CVS) in which a sample is removed from the placenta, and was told on 8 March 2019 that the test had detected Trisomy 18.

She claims that her physician told her that the baby was ‘non-viable’ and that it was not necessary to wait for the results of further genetic tests to confirm the diagnosis. She says she relied totally on this advice and consequently decided to undergo the  abortion on 14 March 2019.

However, she claims that when she later received the results of the additional genetic test, which examines the chromosomes for genetic disabilities, it showed that her son was healthy. Both parents said no healthcare professional told them personally that baby Christopher was actually healthy.

Ms Price has reported experiencing “all-consuming mental and physical trauma” since the abortion.

Abortion in Ireland

This abortion took place in early 2019 shortly after Ireland became the first country in history to choose to remove the right to life for its unborn citizens by popular vote in May 2018.

The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act that legalised abortion was signed into law on 20 December 2018.

Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said: “This is a desperately sad case at every level. Whether or not baby Christopher was correctly diagnosed with having a disability is no justification for ending his life by abortion. If the diagnosis was correct and he did have Edwards’ syndrome, his life was still precious and it should not have been ended. The fact that the diagnosis was incorrect demonstrates the inherent danger in any abortion regime that singles out babies with disabilities.  

URGENT
APPEAL
to protect vulnerable lives

Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help fight the next phase of our battles against major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.

Dear reader,

We are facing two major threats in the Lords - an extreme assisted suicide Bill and an abortion up to birth amendment.

THE GOOD NEWS - OUR STRATEGY IS WORKING

At Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords, a record number of Peers spoke, and of those who took a position, around two-thirds opposed the assisted suicide Bill. That is more than double the number who supported it.

Our side also secured a significant win, with the establishment of a dedicated Lords Select Committee to further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals – and Committee Stage has been delayed until it reports.

This momentum has been built by tens of thousands of people like you. Thanks to your hard work, Peers are receiving a very large number of emails and letters by post, making the case against the Bill. 

Thanks to your support, we have been able to mount a major campaign in Parliament, in the media and online – alongside your own efforts – to keep us on course for our goal: that this dangerous Bill never becomes law.

BUT MORE CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD

We cannot become complacent. Well-funded groups - Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision and Humanists UK - have poured millions into pushing assisted suicide. They can see support is slipping and will fight hard to reverse that.

This is not the only fight we are facing in the House of Lords.

At the same time, the Antoniazzi abortion up to birth amendment, which passed in the House of Commons in June, is moving through the House of Lords as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.

Second Reading will take place in a matter of weeks. It will then go on to Committee and Report Stages, where we will be up against the UK’s largest abortion providers – BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes) – who are expected to lobby for even more extreme changes to our abortion laws.

If the Antoniazzi amendment becomes law, it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason – including sex-selective purposes – at any point up to and during birth.

Thousands of vulnerable lives - at the beginning and the end of life - depend on what happens next. We must do everything in our power to stop these radical proposals.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Our campaign against the Leadbeater Bill in the House of Lords is working, but the work we have already done has significantly stretched our limited resources.

We are now stepping up our efforts against the assisted suicide Bill while launching a major push to stop the abortion up to birth amendment in the Lords. 

To fight effectively on both fronts, we aim to raise £183,750 by midnight this Sunday (5 October 2025).

Every donation, large or small, will help protect lives, and UK taxpayers can add 25p to every £1 through Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these two major threats?

URGENT
APPEAL
to protect vulnerable lives

Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help fight the next phase of our battles against major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.