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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Agencies
July 17,2020

New Delhi, Jul 17: The first FIR against Volkswagen and Audi in India for installing cheat devices in their cars to misrepresent emissions has been filed in Noida.

The FIR was filed by Noida resident Aniljit Singh against the top officials of Volkswagen and Audi in India and their headquarters in Germany. These include Rahil Ansari, Brand Director, Audi India, Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head, Audi India, and Bram Schot, Chairman, Audi AG.

The FIR reviewed by media agency cites forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The complaint has cited the global emissions scandal where VW was found to be installing a cheat device in its cars, in the absence of which, the cars produced 10-40 times emissions beyond the permissible limits.

The complainant said that in 2018 he had purchased seven Audi cars worth crores of rupees. At the time of taking the delivery, the complainant said that he inquired if the cheat devices were installed in India and he was told by the company that they were not, as in India's emission norms were not as stringent and the country being a growing market for Audi, no such device was implanted.

The complaint said that the authorities in India observed that Audi cars' emissions for nitrogen oxide were 5-8 times the permissible limits and after the National Green Tribunal imposed a penalty of Rs 500 crore on VW, the complainant realised that he had been duped of his hard earned money.

He alleged that the accused persons had misrepresented the complainant by forging the documents and devices and caused wrongful gains to themselves and wrongful losses to the complainant. These officials had made wrong records to capture the market, with malafide intent and under a pre-planned conspiracy had induced and defrauded the complainant.

The accused persons are guilty of cheating the customers and have induced the complainant to part with hard earned money for sub-standard cars. The accused are also guilty of forging the documents on which they had sought various clearances.

The complainant has demanded that the allegations may be thoroughly investigated by a senior official.

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Agencies
January 8,2020

Muzaffarpur, Jan 8: There is no evidence of murder of children in Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter home, the CBI on Wednesday told the Supreme Court.

The probe agency told the apex court that two skeletons were recovered from the home's premises which were later, in forensic investigation, found to be of a woman and a man.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde accepted the status report of the CBI and allowed two officers to be relieved from the investigation team.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, said investigation was done on allegations of rape and sexual assault of children and charge sheets have been filed before the courts concerned.

Venugopal said the children, who were alleged to have been murdered, were later traced and found to be alive.

He said the CBI has investigated cases of 17 shelter homes in Bihar and charge sheets have been filed in 13 of them, while in four cases the preliminary inquiry was conducted and later closed as no evidence of any wrongdoing was found.

The probe agency, in its status report filed on Monday, said no incriminating evidence proving commission of any criminal offence could be gathered in four preliminary enquiries and as such no FIR has been registered.

The CBI had also said the Bihar government has been requested to take departmental action and action of cancellation of registration and blacklisting of concerned NGOs by providing them the result of investigation, i.e., the CBI report.

Several girls were allegedly sexually and physically assaulted at a shelter home run by an NGO in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

Following the report, a petition was filed in the apex court seeking lodging of an FIR and court-monitored probe by an independent agency into the allegations.

The plea filed by journalist Nivedita Jha through advocate Fauzia Shakil has sought "registration of FIR and independent investigations or court monitored probe into the affairs of these 14 (other) shelter homes in Bihar mentioned in the TISS report".

The apex court had directed the CBI to probe the offences under the Information Technology Act regarding the video recordings of the alleged assault on girls at the shelter home.

It had also directed the agency to investigate the role of "outsiders who were involved and facilitated the sexual assaults on the inmates", after administering them intoxicants and also against those who allegedly indulged in trafficking of girls from the shelter home.

The apex court had earlier directed the CBI to complete its probe into the alleged murder of 11 girls at the shelter home and asked it to file a status report.

The SC had transferred the case from Bihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi.

Earlier, the top court had directed the CBI to conduct a probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 16 other shelter homes in Bihar which were flagged in the TISS report.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Bareilly, Jan 9: In a bizarre development, a woman has been arrested for inflicting 101 cuts on her sister-in-law in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, the police said on Thursday.

The woman was practicing exorcism to cure her father who had been ailing for some time.

The woman, Moni, was helped by her husband Mooli and brother Raju in the act, which happened on Tuesday.

The sister-in-law Renu who suffered the cuts, was given 300 stitches on her face and other parts of the body by the doctors.

Renu has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where her condition is said to be serious.

Moni, 30, has been sent to jail while Mooli and Raju are absconding.

Baradari police station officer inspector Naresh Tyagi said that a complaint had been filed by Renu's brother under section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC.

"We will record Renu's statements in a day or two once she is stable and in a condition to talk to us. We have sent Moni to jail," the inspector said.

Renu, a resident of Ganghora village in Bareilly, was married to Sanjeev around eight years ago.

Her father-in-law, Jagdish, fell ill a few months ago.

"Accused Moni, who practices exorcism, decided to cure her father by initiating the act. Going by superstitious beliefs, they inflicted as many as 101 cuts on Renu's face and body. It cannot be ruled out that they wanted to sacrifice her to complete the act," police inspector said.

On Tuesday night, the accused had locked Renu's husband and mother-in-law in another room when they tried to stop them from making her a scapegoat.

When the accused trio started inflicting cuts on Renu, she struggled to get out of their clutches and somehow managed to escape from the house.

She had run a short distance when she collapsed and became unconscious. A police constable on patrol reportedly spotted her and she was taken to a district hospital. Once regaining her consciousness, she narrated her ordeal to the police who then informed her parents.

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