Delay In Pregnant Woman’s Sterilisation Ruling

A ruling by the Court of Protection on whether a pregnant woman with learning disabilities should be sterilised has been delayed until the Court receives more evidence.

The mother of the woman, known only as ‘P,’ told the Court that she wants her daughter to be stopped from having any more children, even if this means forcibly sterilising her. P, 21, is due to give birth to her second child by Caesarean tomorrow (Wednesday.) Mrs P is already bringing up P’s first child, as P’s learning disabilities mean that while she is sexually healthy and active, she does not have the mental capacity to care for her children, or to understand the consequences of falling pregnant again.

Mrs P said that she cannot bring up any more children and has tried to explain to her daughter that any future children she may have would have to be looked after by someone outside the family. However, she says, her daughter does not understand this and ‘thinks she will see them on weekends and at birthdays and Christmas.’

P was to be sterilised, if the Court had decided this was in her best interests, straight after the Caesarean procedure. This was what Mrs P was hoping for, and while the judge agreed that this would have been the best time to perform sterilisation surgery, he said there was not yet enough evidence to decide whether this would be in P’s best interests.

The court will now have to decide whether P lacks the mental capacity to make decisions about contraception and, if so, whether she should be sterilised by means of a “tubal ligation.”

The Court will also decide whether less invasive options such as an injection or contraceptive implant would be more suitable for P.

The judge, Mr Justice Heady, said: “Much as the court shares Mrs P’s anxieties about further delays and losing this opportunity, I am satisfied that the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 cannot be complied with at the present time so as to enable the court to make that decision.”

Instead, he called for a further set of hearings into the case to take place in April and May, to allow time for expert evidence to be collected before deciding which course of action the Court should take.

I am waiting with interest for the ruling of this case to be revealed.  For now, I guess this is progress of a sort for those who are against the sterilisation of disabled women, as I am and have always been.

I can understand that Mrs P cannot care for any more children her daughter may have, but personally, I can’t see anything wrong with putting any such children up for adoption outside the family. In my personal opinion, that would be better than sterilising P against her will.