Thanks to prenatal screening, far fewer babies with Down Syndrome are being born than was once the case. A recent study shows that across Europe as a whole, the reduction is in the order of half, but in Ireland prior to the introduction of abortion two years ago, it was ‘only’ 8pc, whereas in Spain it is above 80pc. This may become even worse with non-invasive prenatal testing becoming more widely available.

The study was published in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

The researchers, led by Dr Brian G Skotko from the Department of Pediatrics of Harvard Medical School, studied the period 2011-15 and discovered that 10.1 out of 10,000 live births in Europe involved children with Down Syndrome. They estimated that, in the same period, on average 54pc of babies found to have DS were aborted. Without these abortions, the prevalence would have been 21.7 per 10,000 live births.

As mentioned, this varies greatly country by country. It is very low here so far, but very high in countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Denmark. The fact that it is so high in the first three, shows how a eugenic mentality has overridden the Catholic culture of those societies.

Ireland had the highest prevalence of live Down Syndrome births in Europe: 27.8 per 10,000 against the European average of 10 per 10,000. The population of Down Syndrome in Europe is estimated by this study at 5.6 per 10,000 inhabitants. In Ireland it is 13.9 per 10,000 inhabitants, the highest rate in Europe. What made Ireland different? Its pro-life culture and the 8th amendment.

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