Justin Welby says wife felt pressured to have abortion

The Archbishop of Canterbury has revealed that years ago his wife felt pressured into having an abortion by hospital staff who feared their child would have a disability.

The Most Rev Justin Welby’s daughter, Ellie Welby, 32, was born with dyspraxia, a condition causing difficulty in coordination and movement.

Speaking to the General Synod, the Church’s legislative body, the Archbishop said when his wife, Caroline, was pregnant, it was “expected” that she would ask for a termination if a disability test she was offered came back positive.

He added that staff brought up the cost of raising a child with a disability when advising him and his wife on their decision.

The Archbishop said: “Before [Ellie] was born, during the pregnancy, there was some concern and a test was offered, but it was made very, very clear to my wife that if the test was taken and proved positive, it would be expected that we ask for a termination.

“It was not a neutral process, because they said it’s expensive.”

Support for families

The Archbishop’s comments came during a motion on disabled children put forward by the Ven Pete Spiers, an archdeacon from Liverpool, challenging the assumption that bringing a disabled child into the world is a tragedy.

Archdeacon Spiers urged healthcare providers to improve the support they give to the parents and families of disabled children and called on the Government to ensure they are provided with unbiased information about their unborn child’s condition.

He also implored the Church to consider ways of improving the human dignity of disabled children by offering better advice and support to parents and families.

The Archbishop told Church leaders gathered in York that his daughter was “exceptionally precious”. He said: “She’s precious because she’s wonderful, she’s kind, she is someone who gets cross and gets happy and gets sad. She’s not that severely disabled.

“She’s been chucked off a bus, or tried to be on one occasion, by a ticket inspector who didn’t believe that her disability card was genuine.”

‘Belief in human dignity’

He added that his family once discussed: “What would happen if she was healed, what would it look like? And one of the other children said: ‘She wouldn’t be Ellie.’

“I hope that this motion passes, not just because of Ellie, but because of our belief in human dignity.”

The motion, which passed by 312 votes to none, included emotional testimonies from other speakers who either lived with a disability or who cared for people with a disability.

The Archbishop has previously said he does not pray for his daughter in relation to her disability because it is part of her.

Under the current law, abortions are permitted until 24 weeks in most circumstances. However, if there is a “substantial risk” of a child being “seriously handicapped”, then an abortion can take place up to birth.

The Church has long campaigned against abortions on the grounds of disability, describing the law as “discriminatory” during a 2013 parliamentary debate.