The New York Times has reported that non-invasive prenatal screening tests for possible disorders are wrong up to 93% of the time. Dr. Jeff Barrows of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMA) says The Times did a fairly good job covering the issue.
"For her to undergo these tests and then to be told that the screening test is positive and to not recognize that it is only a screening test, that it really needs to be followed up by a different diagnostic test that confirms the presence or absence of that particular genetic disease," Dr. Barrows says, can be devastating for a woman.
He says none of the major medical societies recommends the use of these blood tests specifically to detect the rare genetic abnormalities.
"They are designed and were initially approved to be used for the major type of chromosomal problems that we see in obstetrics and gynecology, and that's Down syndrome," Dr. Barrows continues. "That's where the test is fairly accurate. For these other tiny microdeletions that are being talked about in the article, they're not very accurate results."
He submits parents should not consider abortion, especially not based off the results of these screenings.
