Christian campaigner slams medical ethics chief for defending sex-selective abortions

A Christian campaigner in England is denouncing medical ethics expert at the British Medical Association (BMA) for saying women should be allowed to terminate their pregnancies if they think their unborn child is the "wrong" sex.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Professor Wendy Savage said that the law banning sex-selective abortions should be scrapped.

"If a woman does not want to have a foetus who is one sex or the other, forcing her [to go through with the pregnancy] is not going to be good for the eventual child, and it's not going to be good for [the mother's] mental health," she said.

Nola Leach, chief executive of Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), denounced the professor's remarks as "extreme" and said that her position on the ethics board of the BMA was "troubling."

Leach said that the professor's suggestion that women should be allowed to have an abortion based on the gender of the unborn child treats children as "nothing more than a commodity."

"In society we strive for equality between men and women, knowing that they both have incredible talents and gifts and our laws protect these men and women when they are discriminated against purely on the basis of their sex. For Savage to claim that unborn children do not deserve this right too is inexcusable," Leach told Christian Today.

Savage, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist who has performed 10,000 abortions, said she believes that it is a "myth" that sex-selective abortions happen in Britain. She noted that she had only been asked once in her 35-year career to perform an abortion because of the unborn child's sex.

A spokesman for the BMA stated that Savage was not speaking for the doctors' union and noted that the organization supports the current laws on abortion.

Savage is also behind a bid to convince the BMA members to support a policy calling for abortion to be removed from criminal statute. During last Year's BMA conference, she submitted a motion seeking a policy on decriminalization of abortion.

Under the current law, abortion is legal in Britain up to 24 weeks if signed off by two doctors. Terminations beyond that period are only allowed in exceptional circumstances.

Pro-life campaigners have expressed concern that decriminalization would lead to ever increasing numbers of abortions, particularly after 24 weeks. The BMA clarified that it has no policy on decriminalization of abortion.