Ann Bradley

About the author: Ann Bradley is a writer for Living Marxism, a British magazine that covers a variety of cultural, moral, medical, and scientific issues.

It is not unethical for a woman to choose to abort a handicapped fetus. Because the woman would be responsible for raising the handicapped child, only she can decide whether to bring the pregnancy to term. The theoretical "interests of the fetus" do not outweigh the real rights of the mother.

These days there is not much support for anti-abortion arguments per se. Even old-fashioned moralists like Victoria Gillick hesitate before saying that women should be prevented from having abortions—they prefer to argue that such women are damaged victims of a promiscuous society. But once the issue of fetal handicap is raised, everything seems to change.

Many...