What REALLY happens during an abortion: One surgeon finally tells the truth
By DEBORAH DAVIES – Daily Mail UK Last updated 12th October 2007
The blonde teenager, waiting to go into the operating theatre, is 16 years old and nearly 16 weeks pregnant. She’ll be one of up to 60 women having an abortion that day at the Marie Stopes clinic in south London.
She realised she was pregnant about eight weeks earlier, but couldn’t pluck up the courage to tell her mother. The weeks ticked by. She agonised over what to do: she had plans to go to college; her boyfriend said he’d stand by her whatever she decided.
She had considered having an abortion in secret, but eventually her mum guessed and made the appointment for her.
The abortion she’s about to have would be illegal in many European countries, where the time limit is 12 weeks, unless the foetus is severely disabled or the mother’s life is at risk.
But in Britain, abortions performed for those critical health reasons accounted for only 2 per cent of the 200,000 abortions carried out last year.
The overwhelming majority were carried out on the legal grounds that two doctors agreed that continuing the pregnancy would damage the mother’s physical or mental well-being.
Small wonder, then, that some say the law is interpreted to allow abortion on demand. Very few doctors will refuse a woman who believes she can’t cope with the pregnancy or an unwanted child. And she can make that decision right up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
These facts are worth restating because 40 years ago this month abortion became legal in Britain. The heat has never gone out of the debate, but the issue has usually simmered on the political back-burner. That’s all set to change in the next few weeks.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=487377&in_page_id=1879&in_page_id=1879
6 Comments
… We live in a country built upon values such as democracy and freedom of speech. Your “society” seems to enjoy slandering the freedoms which we all have the right to enjoy, mainly becuase it goes against what … Patricia Bartlett says. Are you saying that we should not be able to have abortions for unwanted pregancies? Don’t worry I can answer that. Of course you are. You believe that the ultimate woman should be in her adulthood and happily married before she even contemplates having intercourse, and then she should pop out children and have a nice little church going, prayer saying, family values loving family. I have nothing against your beliefs, I am a liberalist. But I despise people like you who have to force them on everyone else. Face reality. This is not the 50′s. I’m a teenager growing up in the modern world and I can tell you that abstinance [sic] is an ideal 99.9% of teenagers are not going to believe in. Maybe in an ideal world teenagers would be abstinant [sic]. But the world isn’t ideal. So the world is going to have teenage pregnancies. Why should the next generation have to cope with thousands of young mothers, scaping together a living? They could all have abortions and get on with their lives. Why does your society have to make everything so damned immoral. …when will you learn. [comment edited to remove gratuitous abuse, vitriol and obscenity]
Well said Caleb. I second everything you say.
Yes Caleb, we believe in the right to murder the unborn, ripping their limbs off, one-by-one. Yeah, right.
“I have nothing against your beliefs…”
What sort of idiocy is that throwaway line Caleb? Your whole rant is against the beliefs of those you so despise.
You are an incredibly intolerant individual, made so obvious by the vitriol and nastiness of your comments.
As for Ash, same thing goes. Fancy endorsing such stupidity. The world you believe in, if it continues along this path, is headed for destruction. Can you not see this?
You’re entitled to your opinion Rob, but as for me endorsing stupidity? I think not. Like it or not abortion is legal, and whether or not to go through with it is the woman’s choice. What if the child were severely deformed and would have no quality of life? Or if the mother was a drug addict and the child would be born an addict or have foetal alcohol syndrome? How’s that for endorsing stupidity?
Wow, it’s been a while.
Rob, if you can give me one example of an abortion which involved ” ripping their [an unborn child's] limbs off, one-by-one” in this country, I will surrender my argument and admit that you are right. If you can’t, then I advise you not to exaggerate when you argue – you sound stupid.
And yes, I have nothing against your beliefs. I myself am a Christian – I try to live by the example that Jesus set, and be a good, reasonable person. That said, I detest Christians, such as those in the SPCS, who feel they have to ram their opinions down everyone’s throats.
Listen, Rob, before you go calling me intolerant of others, take a look at your argument. You’re saying that nobody has the right to an abortion. I’d say that’s a fairly intolerant argument – you don’t take anything about the individual into account. What if they can’t afford a child? What if they don’t want a child? It’s nobodies business but theirs. Deal with it.
I’ll give you one thing though – people should be more responsible, and at present, our system encourages the opposite. I’m all for getting rid of taxpayer funded abortion surgery, but people should be free to pursue abortions privately.
I wonder if Caleb, who seems to justify abortion on the grounds that a woman may not be able to afford to raise it, has heard of adoption?