All women to get Down's checks

All pregnant woman will be offered screening for Down's Syndrome for the first time, under new guidelines published today.

But while the move is being hailed as a benefit to women helping them make more informed choices, it will spark an ethical debate because campaigners fear it will lead to a huge rise in the number of abortions.

The guidelines, developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health (NCCWCH) for the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice), represents the biggest shake-up in antenatal care since the Twenties.

Currently around half of pregnant women have Down's screening - which can be done by a scan of the unborn baby's neck, blood tests, or invasive procedures such as amniocentesis, which are the most accurate but carry a one in 100 risk of miscarriage.

But pro-life campaigners today said the increased testing would mean more Down's babies aborted. Alison Davis, of the No Less Human campaign said: "The covert message is that if there is anything 'wrong' with the baby, it should be aborted."

The other major recommendation of the guidelines is women with uncomplicated pregnancies should have less antenatal appointments.