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U.K. Appeals Court Overturns Order for Mentally Disabled Woman to Have Abortion

Protesters on both sides of the abortion debate in London last month.Credit...Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Three days after a British court ordered a developmentally disabled woman to have an abortion against her and her mother’s wishes, an appeals court overturned that decision, the mother’s lawyer said Monday.

Last week, a judge had ruled that an abortion was in the best interests of the unidentified woman, who is in her 20s, lives in London and has the mental capacity of a 6- to 9-year-old, according to evidence presented in court. The woman is 22 weeks pregnant, and the court was told that the circumstances of the pregnancy were unclear. British news media reported that a police investigation was underway.

In her ruling on Friday, Justice Nathalie Lieven of the Court of Protection said that although the case was “heartbreaking,” she had to act in the woman’s “best interests, not on society’s views of termination.”

The woman’s mother challenged that ruling, and on Monday three Court of Appeal judges overturned it, confirmed her lawyer, John McKendrick. He said the judges granted his client’s appeal after an “emergency last-minute hearing” on Monday.

“The court set aside Mrs. Justice Lieven’s decision and ruled it was not in her best interests to have the termination,” Mr. McKendrick wrote in an email. He said that the woman “will continue with her pregnancy.”

The three appeals court judges, Justice Richard McCombe, Justice Eleanor King and Justice Peter Jackson, have yet to file a written decision on the case, a spokesman for the Court of Appeal said.

The woman was under the care of a National Health Service trust, which had asked the court for permission for its doctors to terminate the pregnancy.

An obstetrician and two psychiatrists told the Court of Protection that an abortion was the best option for the woman because a continued pregnancy would be a risk to her psychiatric health, according to the BBC.

The woman, her mother and a social worker opposed terminating the pregnancy, and the mother had offered to care for the child. The woman has a diagnosis of a “moderately severe” learning disorder and a mood disorder, the court was told.

In her ruling, Justice Lieven said she understood the gravity of the case and was “acutely conscious of the fact that for the state to order a woman to have a termination where it appears that she doesn’t want it is an immense intrusion.”

But the judge added that though the woman wanted to keep the baby, it was not clear to her whether the woman understood the consequences of having a child. “I think she would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll,” the judge wrote.

The ruling on Friday drew outrage from opponents of abortion and words of caution from supporters of abortion rights.

Bishop John Sherrington of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster said on Monday that the case “raises serious questions about the meaning of ‘best interests’ when a patient lacks mental capacity and is subject to the court’s decision against her will.”

After the Court of Appeal decision, anti-abortion campaigners expressed relief. “There is no way such a judgment should ever have been made and had it gone ahead would have been a most grave violation of human rights,” Liz Parsons, the head of advocacy for the British charity Life, said in a statement.

The chairwoman for the British group Abortion Rights, Kerry Abel, said the unusual facts of the case should not be used to attack abortion rights in general.

“We’re campaigning for choices, and you can’t judge women’s choices by one case,” she said.

British law allows abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy, and a section of the law allows for an abortion if there is a significant risk that a baby will be born seriously disabled. In 2001, the Disability Rights Commission, a government body meant to enforce and review disability laws, denounced that provision of the law, calling it discriminatory.

Yonette Joseph contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: British Appeals Court Reverses Order for Mentally Disabled Woman’s Abortion. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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