Wednesday 13th May 2026, 14:30-16:30, (in-person event)
Overview
Disability Law @ Birmingham invites you to an afternoon research seminar (in-person ticket)
On May 13th, the Disability Research Group at the University of Birmingham will host a seminar focused on the negative messages, ethical implications, and stigma surrounding disability-selective abortions. Dr Heloise Robinson, Dr Kavana Ramaswamy and Dhani Seneviratne will present their papers covering different aspects of debates which ultimately frame disability and reproductive autonomy as oppositional positions within the scope of disability-selective abortions. Each presentation will last 15-10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for questions. There will also be time at the end of the seminar for informal conversations. For any further details or if you experience problems signing up, please get in touch with Dhani Seneviratne at d.seneviratne@bham.ac.uk
Featuring:
Dr Heloise Robinson, University of Oxford, Lecturer in Law
Dr Kavana Ramaswamy, Independent Academic
Dhani Seneviratne, University of Birmingham, PhD Researcher
Register Now. All welcome!
Dr Heloise Robinson, University of Oxford – Disability-Selective Abortion and the Law’s Messages
Abstract:
This presentation will address issues arising in an important Court of Appeal case, R (Crowter) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2022] EWCA Civ 1559. In particular, it will assess arguments made by the appellants that the disability ground in the Abortion Act 1967 ‘expresses’ a negative message about disabled people, and that this expression violates their rights under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It will also address and critique a common view that disability-selective abortion should be understood by reference to a conflict model, whereby women’s rights to abortion conflict with the rights of disabled people. Finally, the presentation will also consider the implications of various options for legal reform, and whether the law could express a message which supports both reproductive autonomy and disability equality.
Bio:
Heloise Robinson is a Lecturer in Law at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford, and previously worked as a Lecturer or as a Fellow at other Oxford colleges. During the 2025-2026 academic year, she is also an Academic Visitor at the Uehiro Oxford Institute, where she is conducting research on applied ethics. Her main interests relate to medical law and bioethics, disability law and philosophy, equality, and feminist legal theory. She is also a qualified barrister and solicitor in Ontario, Canada, and prior to starting her academic work, practised law for some years.
Much of her work has focused on legal and ethical questions surrounding the use of techniques to select against disability, and she is the author of Selecting against Disability in the Liberal State: Choice, Equality, and the Limits of Neutrality (forthcoming with CUP), and one of the editors of Philosophical Foundations of Disability Law (under contract with OUP). She is also now writing a second monograph, which is on pregnancy, personhood, and equality (under contract with OUP), and where she is developing a new argument on the status of pregnant women.
Kavana Ramaswamy, Independent Academic – Ethics of Disability-Selective Abortion: An Accounting of Harmful Impact
Abstract:
The ethics of disability-selective abortion (DSA) has been the subject of much debate, recently revived by the judgment of the Appeals Court in R (on the application of Crowter) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2022] EWCA Civ 1559. On the issue of DSA promoting negative stereotypes, the court took the position that Section 1(1)(d) of the Abortion Act of 1967 could not promote stereotypes about disabled people since it was mainly concerned with unborn foetuses. However, the material impacts of DSA impact disabled people as well; these impacts are often ignored, even with the debate on the ‘expressivist objection’ informing much of the discussion in this case. This presentation discusses the material impacts of DSA beyond the expressivist objection, couching the problem in issues of systemic power and oppression rather than in questions of autonomy and so-called ‘apolitical’ personal choices.
Bio:
Kavana Ramaswamy is an independent academic and a PhD Graduate from the University of Cambridge. Their thesis, “Crippling Justice: Enabling Theory on Disability”, looks at the codification of different models of disability in law, what models of equality they reflect and the impact of these models on justice for disabled people. They propose the Devaluation Model as an alternative model to understand disability that addresses the gaps of existing models in envisaging justice. Their research is informed by experiences of disablement following the Feminist Method. In addition to Disability and Legal Theory, they are also interested in Human Rights, Queer Theory and International Law.
Dhani Seneviratne, University of Birmingham – Normalising Stigma: Understanding the Role of Stigma within Disability-Selective Abortions
Abstract:
The question of how to marry respect for reproductive choice with combating discrimination against people with disabilities has dominated debates surrounding disability-selective abortions. A solution to address this conflict has yet to be found, as disability justice and abortion access are consistently framed as two oppositional positions. This presentation shifts the focus from individual liability and conflict to examining the state’s role in creating the barriers to justice, which it is expected to break. Using empirical data from interviews with disability justice and reproductive justice activists in the US and UK, this paper argues that the state normalises disability stigma and abortion stigma. This normalisation of stigma then acts as a tool used by the state to inhibit autonomy. Furthermore, this stigma feeds into other factors, such as the law, language, location, and financial status which are also used by the state to inhibit autonomy and create a discourse of conflict—one that does not accurately reflect the aims of disability justice or reproductive justice.
Bio:
Following her LLM at the University of Cambridge, Dhani started her PhD at the University of Birmingham as an ESRC DTP scholar. Her doctoral project adopts a socio-legal approach to investigating activists’ perspectives and discourse on disability-selective abortions in the US and the UK. Dhani’s wider interests and expertise lie in Health Law, Bioethics, Disability Justice, Post-Colonial theories, and avoiding writing about herself in the third person.