ZENIT.org - LONDON (ZENIT.org)- A pro-life group is warning that insurance companies may soon be using genetic screening that could pressure women toward abortion.

Adults might be refused insurance or denied jobs on the basis of test results, but unborn children could pay the ultimate price, according to the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

SPUC was responding to reports that the government will soon grant insurance companies the right to refuse cover or increase premiums for those shown by genetic tests to be prone to Huntington's disease.

It is reported that approval to discriminate against those who test positive for seven other conditions, including Alzheimer's disease and hereditary breast cancer, is also being considered, SPUC said in a statement.

Paul Tully, general secretary of SPUC, said: "This move represents a very worrying precedent. ... When the parents of an unborn baby have been tested in this way, the expectant mother will be under pressure to have her baby tested and aborted if found to be carrying the same gene."