Editorial: Right to abort trumps right to life with Down’s

​​On so many fronts, the concept of 'human rights' has been hijacked by a particular idea of the sort rights that should be protected.

In Northern Ireland, for example, we have seen a prioritising of the human rights of murderers in the way in which the legacy of terrorism has been investigated, with the focus on alleged failures and transgressions by the forces which sought to protect life and property from the terrorists.

We have also seen a clampdown, supported by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, on the right to protest outside abortion clinics against the terminating of life that happens inside those venues.

Society wants to deny and downplay what happens in an abortion unit.

Euphemistic language is used about 'sexual and reproductive health and rights' as if it is not about termination of foetuses but about the wholesome wellbeing of women.

This dishonesty is built into abortion legislation in Great Britain, in which abortions are legally said only to be available for medical reasons but which for decades have in effect been offered on demand.

And abortion campaigners were dishonest in Northern Ireland too. Remember when they pushed only for terminations in extreme cases such as so-called fatal foetal abnormality? Soon the consensus among such advocates was for abortion on demand.

But now there is a court case heading to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which puts the priorities 'rights' activists in sharp focus.

Are such acitvists people who live up to their self proclaimed humanity, who will advocate on behalf the vulnerable, or are they instead advocates of those who want abortion on demand in cases of Down's syndrome?

After all, some data suggests that 90% of pre-natal diagnoses of Down's Syndrome result in an abortion.

The ECHR case has been taken by Heidi Crowter, a woman with Down's syndrome.

In a haunting comment, she said "we live in a society where disabled people are valued equally after birth but not in the womb".

Where are the rights activists on that point?