On Tuesday 2nd July, in a panel discussion on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme which included an abortion doctor, a woman who regrets her abortion revealed that she “wasn’t well informed” about what her abortion would involve.
Laura Mann had an abortion at 21 weeks when she was 19, during the course of the discussion said “ in hindsight I know that I wasn’t well informed… when I came out of Marie Stopes… the first thing that went through my mind was ‘Where’s my baby, what’s happened to the body of my baby?’ And I kept asking myself that question.”
She felt under “so much pressure” to have an abortion with “[a]ll the voices around [her] at the time time… telling [her she] couldn’t do it.”
Laura said: “[W]hen I went into to discuss that I am pregnant the first option I was given, was abortion. We stepped out of the room, we spoke for 5 minutes went back in, and I was so afraid, so confused. I had no clue what to do.”
After the abortion she was escorted to the recovery room by a nurse. She was “sobbing” because she was in so much pain and the nurse said to her, “You silly girl, don’t you know what you’ve done?”.
Laura said how that put a shockwave through her system and made her so depressed.
“[W]hen I left that clinic, that was the beginning of my nightmare.” she added
Laura went on to say that since then, she has come to terms with her abortion, and it was the recognition of what abortion really is, that helped her in her healing process.
Dr Calum Miller, also on the program, said that: “Often the medical profession hides behind euphemistic terminology… people know its a baby, whereas often it’s described as ‘products of conception’, or ‘a pregnancy’ or ‘pregnancy tissue’.
Dr Miller’s claims are evidenced by the fact that Marie Stopes International, the abortion provider who failed to fully inform Laura of the reality of abortion, in fact uses these terms on their own website and in their own literature.
Clare McCarthy from Right To Life UK said:
“Sadly, what happened to Laura, the pressure she was under and the offer of an abortion as the default option, is all too familiar. She is right to ask why is it that what actually happens in an abortion is kept such a secret. She is right to feel let down by Marie Stopes who did not fully inform her about what would happen to her baby.”
“The truth is that abortion providers do hide behind euphemistic language to conceal the reality of what they’re doing. The abortion doctor even confirmed this on the show saying that when informing patients before an abortion, they “don’t want to frighten patients”, making it quite clear that if they did explain the truth, it would horrify these women.”
“Women like Laura deserve the truth about abortion and more women like her need the opportunity to speak out and share their story of the hurt caused by abortion.”
