British Women Among Worst For Drinking While Pregnant

By Mike Buchanan, J4MB: We covered the issue of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in our 2015 general election manifesto (pp.7,8). Our proposal:

The government should introduce legislation to prosecute women who have given birth to babies with FAS with inflicting GBH, and if found guilty, give them custodial sentences in line with CPS guidance, 9 – 16 years.

I was interested to read a piece on FAS in today’s Times. The start:

British women are more likely to drink alcohol while pregnant than mothers-to-be in most other countries in the world, a study has found.
The UK has one of the highest rates of foetal alcohol syndrome, the leading known cause of non-genetic intellectual disability in the western world, [our emphasis] researchers say. The condition is caused by exposure to alcohol in the womb.

Needless to say, nowhere in the piece – by a female journalist – is any blame attributed to women.
As with mental incapacitation caused to foetuses by pregnant women who smoke – something we’ll cover in our next manifesto – the problem is cast in terms of a ‘lack of awareness’ of the risks. Seriously, can any pregnant women not be aware of the dangers to their foetuses of drinking alcohol and/or smoking after their first engagements with the health services, if they’re not already aware of the issues before then?
From later in the piece:

The NHS no longer collects official figures on drinking during pregnancy, but in 2010 found the rate of drinking during pregnancy was 40 per cent.

The bottom line? The state is so disinterested in the damage wrought on the unborn by women who drink alcohol and/or smoke during pegnancy, it doesn’t even bother to gather data on the extent of the problem.

Edited by AA

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