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A woman had an abortion after being wrongly told her baby suffered from a fatal abnormality, it has been reported.

There have been calls for an investigation into the incident at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, Ireland.

A screening test was performed privately in March of this year, reports RTE.

The findings indicated the baby had a possible diagnosis of trisomy 18, also called Edwards’ syndrome, which is recognised as a fatal foetal abnormality under regulations that came into force in January.

It has been claimed that not all stages of the test results were available before the couple were in a position to make an informed decision.

The final parts of the definitive findings had not been returned from the UK when the couple were told of their baby's alleged fatal abnormality.

(Image: Unknown)

The couple decided upon an abortion in the second trimester, independent.ie reports.

However, they were shocked to learn the catastrophic news that the test results later were negative for the anomaly.

The issue has been brought to the attention of the Health Minister, Simon Harris, who has been called on to carry out a statutory investigation.

(Image: Getty Images)

A spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said: “We can confirm the RCOG has not yet received a formal approach to undertake this review.

"Should an approach be forthcoming, this will be considered in the usual way.”

Edwards’ syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by a third copy of all or part of chromosome 18 and occurs in about one out of every 5,000 births.

Pregnant women can pay to have non-invasive prenatal screening involving a blood test. It analyses cell-free DNA circulating in the pregnant mother’s blood.

It involves a number of stages with the final stage involving high level cell culture which looks at chromosomes.

This must be sent to the UK for analysis.

Fatal foetal abnormalities are usually not diagnosed until around the 20th week of the pregnancy when a woman has an anomaly scan.