Teenager seeking abortion at no risk to suicide

THE teenager at the centre of the latest abortion scandal told a psychiatrist she was happy with being pregnant and had “bought everything, including nappies” after she learned her baby would not survive, the High Court heard yesterday.

The girl, known as Miss D, was assessed by a psychiatrist last week who, in a report read to the court yesterday, concluded she was “not suicidal at present”, had no psychiatric illness and had appropriate insight into her situation.

The psychiatrist reported the 17-year-old was very upset and had run out of hospital when she learned from a scan on April 23 that her baby has anencephaly, a condition in which a major part of the brain is missing. She had said she felt guilty because she had not taken folic acid during her pregnancy.