Denmark Eliminates Down Syndrome Except 4 Babies

Just four babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb were born in Denmark in 2016.

Yet, government officials in the European nation claim they are not trying to eradicate unborn babies with Down syndrome or other disabilities.

Danish Ambassador to Ireland Carsten Søndergaard defended his country’s abortion laws in a letter to the Oireachtas committee that is debating the legalization of abortion in Ireland, the Irish Times reports.

Søndergaard responded to a pro-life advocate who told the committee that the Danish government is trying “to eradicate Down syndrome by abortion by 2030.” He denied the claim, but his own comments indicate that very few babies with Down syndrome are born in Denmark.

“In 2016, there were four children born in Denmark with Down’s syndrome after prenatal diagnosis and there were 20 children born with Down’s syndrome diagnosed after birth,” Søndergaard wrote to the Irish committee.

“In general it should be noted that it is not the policy of the Danish health authorities to eradicate Down’s syndrome, but it is their duty to provide the pregnant woman with the best possible basis for her to make her own decision about her pregnancy,” he continued.

The country does, however, allow women to abort unborn babies with disabilities later in pregnancy.

In Denmark, abortions are legal for any reason up to 12 weeks, but women may abort unborn babies diagnosed with serious physical or mental disorders, including Down syndrome, even later.

In 2014, the Danish government reported 98 percent of unborn babies who tested positive for Down syndrome were aborted.

Nearby in Iceland, nearly 100 percent of unborn babies with Down syndrome are aborted. CBS reports the rate in France was 77 percent in 2015, 90 percent in the United Kingdom and 67 percent in the United States between 1995 and 2011.

Some put the rate as high as 90 percent in the United States, but it is difficult to determine the exact number because the U.S. government does not keep detailed statistics about abortion.

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