More unintended consequences of prenatal diagnosis

A friend sends this article from the Sunday Times in London. Here's the text:

"More than 20 babies have been aborted in advanced pregnancy because scans showed that they had club feet, a deformity readily corrected by surgery or physiotherapy."

The article goes on to say that abortions were also carried out for webbed fingers or extra digits, which can be corrected by simple surgery. All the terminations took place after the 20th week of pregnancy, although the specific week of pregnancy for each was not disclosed. The data, from the Office for National Statistics, added to controversy that had been ignited when a British woman had an abortion at 28 weeks for cleft palate, another surgically correctible condition. It's worth noting: babies delivered at 27 weeks have a survival rate of more than 90 percent.

More text from the article:

"Some parents, doctors and charities are increasingly worried by what they see as a tendency to widen the definition of “serious handicap”. The handicap provision, which does not exist in most other countries, permits abortions to be carried out until birth. It was intended to save women from the trauma of giving birth to babies likely to die in infancy."

Among people who have had club foot: Kristi Yamaguchi, the American figure skater who won an Olympic gold medal in 1992.