Under the new law, abortion was thereafter permitted for reasons of serious foetal abnormalities during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Such foetal abnormalities can give rise to a wide range of handicaps, both mild and severe, physical and mental.

Age is less significant in the increased foetal abnormalities than is the number of the ova left in the ovarian follicular reserves.

Other foetal abnormalities may not be genetic in origin, but stem from infections and diseases; in some cases, the causes may still be unknown.

Expensive 4D scans, available only privately, were originally developed to identify foetal abnormalities such as cleft palates, disfiguring genetic conditions and various skeletal anomalies.

In 2003 the Department of Health (DOH) significantly reduced the statistical information it provided about abortions for suspected foetal abnormalities.

The vast amount of medical research devoted to the early detection and treatment of foetal abnormalities is witness to the fact that society would prefer that there were no retarded babies born.

He did research on the detection of foetal abnormalities at St Bartholomew's, then moved to the Royal Free Hospital and began his crusade to offer women a more holistic approach to giving birth.

The Government has advised that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not eat liver, as very large doses of vitamin A taken over a long period may be associated with foetal abnormalities.

It may also expose other structural defects related to mental handicap, and it has been claimed that the latest, most sophisticated equipment can pick up a wide range of foetal abnormalities if the technicians operating the machines are sufficiently trained.

There is a theoretical risk that administration of antimalarial drugs during the course of MDAs to women in the first trimester of pregnancy, some of whom may not know that they are pregnant, could lead to foetal abnormalities.