Baby girls aborted in UK clinics — with no questions asked

[email protected] (News Network)
February 25, 2012

unborn_baby

London, February 25: Women are being granted illegal abortions by doctors in Britain based on the sex of their unborn baby, an undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraphcan disclose.


Doctors at the country's clinics have been secretly filmed agreeing to terminate foetuses purely because they are either male or female.


Clinicians admitted they were prepared to falsify paperwork to arrange the abortions even though it is illegal to conduct such "sex-selection" procedures.


Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said on Wednesday: "I'm extremely concerned to hear about these allegations. Sex selection is illegal and is morally wrong. I've asked my officials to investigate this as a matter of urgency."


The disclosures will add to growing concerns about the regulation of abortion clinics and the apparent ability of women to secure terminations "on demand".


The Daily Telegraph carried out an investigation into sex-selection abortions after concerns were raised the procedures were becoming increasingly common for cultural and social reasons.


Acting on specific information, undercover reporters accompanied pregnant women to nine clinics in different parts of the country. In three instances doctors were recorded offering to arrange terminations after being told the mother-to-be did not want to go ahead with the pregnancy because of the sex of the unborn child.


One consultant, Prabha Sivaraman, who works for both private clinics and NHS hospitals in Manchester, was filmed telling a pregnant woman who said she wanted to abort a female foetus: "I don't ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination."


She later telephoned a colleague to book the procedure, explaining that it was for "social reasons" and the woman "doesn't want questions asked".


She said to her colleague: "This [the termination] will be under private, she doesn't want to go through NHS. OK, so — that's right, because you're part of our team and she doesn't want questions asked."


Family balancing


Sivaraman, who works for Pall Mall Medical in Manchester and is an obstetrician and gynaecologist at North Manchester General Hospital, said the cost of the termination would be £200 (Dh1,152) or £300, on top of the £500 already paid to the clinic for the consultation. After taking the woman's contact details, Sivaraman asked her if she had considered her options. "Oh, absolutely I can't have it, this baby, because of the gender, so that's just how it is," replied the woman.


The doctor booked the pregnant woman in for a termination the following week despite the reason for the abortion being clearly explained.


Last year, the Council of Europe recommended member states, including Britain, stop telling parents the gender of their baby because of concerns this was encouraging sex-selection abortions. Most hospitals have stopped giving parents this information. However, blood tests that disclose the sex of a foetus are widely available on the internet or abroad.

An undercover reporter calling an abortion advice line was also told private clinics would be able to offer a scan — for a fee. Abortions for non-medical reasons are legal until 24 weeks, but terminations on grounds of sex of the foetus are illegal under the 1967 Abortion Act.


Sex selection claims


The British government on Thursday vowed to investigate newspaper reports that doctors illegally approved abortions that were requested due to the sex of the unborn child.


The Daily Telegraph claimed it had hidden camera footage which showed doctors at British clinics offering to falsify paperwork in order to allow women to have terminations based on gender.


Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said he was "extremely concerned" by the allegations. "Sex selection is illegal and is morally wrong," he said. "I've asked my officials to investigate this as a matter of urgency."


According to the Telegraph, undercover reporters accompanied pregnant woman to nine different clinics across the country. Doctors at three out of the nine clinics agreed to arrange terminations even though the woman claimed she did not want the baby due to its sex, the paper claimed.


Abortions in Britain are allowed in limited circumstances, including when the pregnancy presents a serious mental or physical health risk to the mother and if there is a high chance the child would have severe disabilities.


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News Network
June 11,2020

Muzaffarnagar, Jun 11: Three persons have been arrested for allegedly using plastic scrap to make jaggery at Bhokaheri village under Bhopa police station here, as official said on Thursday.

 Police raided a jaggery manufacturing unite (kolhu) and arrested three persons on Wednesday, SHO, Bhopa police station Sanjive Kumar said.

Police have registered a case against five persons including the trio that was arrested while two of them managed to escape, he said, adding that two loaded tractor trollies of plastic scrap have been seized.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

Mumbai, Feb 11: A 65-year-old woman was allegedly killed by her husband over debt and illness in suburban Powai here, police said on Tuesday.

The incident came to light when Sheela Ajit Lad was found dead by her neighbours at Sukh Shanti Co-operative Society at around 9.30 pm on Monday, an official said.

The victim was allegedly killed by her husband Ajit Lad, who hit her on the head with a heavy object, slit her wrists and strangled her to death, he said.

The accused absconded at around 7.30 pm, leaving a note at the crime scene, saying he was going to commit suicide and had killed his wife because he was heavily in debt and she was suffering from an ailment, the official said.

The childless couple lived alone in the apartment, he added.

"On the basis of the note, we have registered a case of murder against Ajit Lad and have launched a manhunt for him. We have not traced him or found his body as he had mentioned suicide in the note," deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Zone X Ankit Goyal said.

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News Network
July 15,2020

Mumbai, Jul 15: A domestic row between a couple spilled onto road when a woman stopped her husbands car and climbed on its bonnet, briefly disrupting traffic on the busy Pedder Road in South Mumbai, police said on Wednesday.

The incident, which took place on Saturday evening, was recorded by some passersby on their mobile phones and its videos are making rounds on social media.

The wife chased the husband's SUV (sports utility vehicle) in her car after she spotted another woman seated next to him in his vehicle.

As her husband's SUV stopped at the Pedder Road signal, the wife get down from her car, rushed towards his four-wheeler and started shouting at him, a police official said.

In the video, the woman is seen climbing the bonnet of the SUV, removing her footwear and hitting the vehicle's windshield with it. She is also seen asking the husband's co- passenger to get out of the SUV and shouting for police help.

As she stopped her car in the middle of the busy road, one lane got blocked for some time and the traffic police personnel present there tried to ensure movement of other vehicles, the official said.

After sometime, the traffic police asked the couple to take their cars near the footpath.

By that time, the husband stepped out of his SUV, following which the wife ran towards him and caught him. She even kicked him a couple of times and took him to her car, the video shows.

She then again ran towards her husband's SUV, which was parked a few metres away. She opened its driver-side door and lunged at the woman seated in the vehicle, but was stopped by some people who had gathered at the spot, the police official said.

Later, the couple and their cars were taken to Gamdevi police station, where the wife refused to lodge a complaint against her husband.

A fine was imposed on her for traffic rules violation and abandoning her car in the middle of the road, which caused disruption of vehicular movement, the official said.

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