This point of agreement between speakers from two sides of a notoriously polarised debate is particularly noteworthy in that the speakers find themselves joined together in taking a position which is starkly opposed to public opinion. Opinion polls have consistently found that people consider termination more acceptable in the presence of a disability (Lee and Davey, 1998, Lee 2000). Furthermore, their view is also out of line with contemporary abortion practice: between 1500 and 2000 terminations per year are performed for reason of fetal disability, with several hundred of them occurring after 20 weeks gestation.

Still more interesting is the fact that both speakers find themselves in broad disagreement with the current law in England, Wales and Scotland. The 1967 Abortion Act provides that terminations are only lawful where performed by a registered medical practitioner, and where two doctors agree that one of a number of conditions is met. One of these conditions, set out in s.1(1)(d) of the Act, is that abortion may be authorised by two doctors who agree that there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would be 'seriously handicapped'. Since 1990, there have been no time limits for terminations performed on this ground. Likewise, the existence of a presumed fetal disability is also relevant in Northern Ireland, where the Abortion Act 1967 does not apply. Such terminations as are carried out there are done on the basis of R v Bourne [1938] 3 All ER 612, which holds that a doctor may lawfully perform a termination where 'the probable consequences of the continuance of the pregnancy will be to make the woman a physical and mental wreck'. Whilst it is not obvious that this should more readily support terminations on the basis of abnormality than on other grounds, nonetheless the majority of the terminations performed in Northern Ireland each year are performed for this reason (Lee 1995).