Professor Wendy Savage has controversially declared that pregnant women should be allowed to abort their babies if it is not the gender they were hoping for
A top medical expert in the UK has made controversial comments about expectant mothers - saying that they should be allowed to abort their unborn babies if the gender is not what they were hoping for.
Professor Wendy Savage, who is ironically a leading expert in ethics at the British Medical Association, staked her upsetting claim in an interview with the Mail on Sunday.
The professor, a retired OBGYN who has performed 10,000 terminations in her career, said: "It's her body and her foetus, so she should have that information. If a woman does not want to have a foetus who is one sex or the other, forcing her to go through with the pregnancy is not going to be good for the eventual child, and it's not going to be good for the mother's mental health.
"It's her body. She is the one taking the risks. The foetus is a potential human life in the womb; it is not an actual human life. I think you've got to concentrate on the rights of the woman."
Her comments have caused horror amongst both medical professionals and normal, everyday people.
Mark Field, a Conservative MP, said: "Suggesting that women should be able to abort babies solely because they happen to be either male or, much more usually, female, is utterly abhorrent.
"To have someone like Wendy Savage with her extreme views at the heart of the BMA is a very worrying sign. The majority of people in this country, even those who support abortion, think sex-selective abortion is a step too far."
The Department of Health have also recently issued new guidance clarifying the law on abortion, which reads: "Abortion on the grounds of gender alone is illegal."
There have been reports that there is a possibility expectant mothers are aborting their babies based on their genders after studies found that over 4,000 girls less had been born in the UK in 2014 than expected.
This has caused some NHS hospitals to stop telling parents-to-be what the gender of their baby is at the 12-week scan, instead giving them the option to find out at 20 weeks.
Some hospitals have even stopped giving parents the option at all - and this is what caused Professor Savage's contentious comments.
Blimey... We couldn't imagine aborting a baby because of its gender!
Do YOU think mums should be allowed to abort their unborn children because of their gender? Let us know over on Facebook and Twitter.
Read more like this:
Why abortions must be made legal in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Pregnant mum is carrying her terminally ill baby to full term to donate organs to babies in need
Josie Cunningham: ‘I don’t want to be Britain’s most hated woman anymore’