A backstreet abortion painful procedure... fat

had been “a silly girl” and suffered septicaemia and a damaged uterus. She was also questioned by police. She discharged herself and after recovering from her ordeal, anger at the system made her speak out about abortion and start a support network for other young Irish women who travelled to the UK to end their unwanted pregnancies.

Between 80,000 and 110,000 illegal abortions took place each year in England and Wales during the 60s. The death rate from them was twice the maternal mortality rate.

Backstreet abortionists could face life imprisonment. In 1960, 33 were convicted in England and Wales, and 39 were in 1961 – usually after the illness or death of a client.

The author of the original Call the Midwife books always insisted the backstreet abortionists of London’s East End were “tough to the point of brutality”. Jennifer Worth, who died in 2011 at the age of 75, hit out at the portrayal of Vera Drake as a homely woman trying to help those in trouble. Writing in 2005, the former midwife said: “I never once heard of anyone doing it for philanthropic reasons. Basically, they were in it for the money.

“It was a gruesome and horrifying procedure carried out in a perfunctory fashion on the kitchen table. It was so excruciatingly painful that the girl would have to be held down.

“Fatalities among women undergoing an abortion were high, but they were far higher among desperate women trying to do it themselves – with scissors, paper knives or pickle forks pushed into the uterus. Chronic renal fail bladde develo in th to d from “B to u we n happe found o inform th the women, the abortionist, w have wished behind “When medical tr were in demand. T that was widely us they were medic legislation was to b

Imelda Staunton in Mike Leigh film Midwife Valerie with Elsie before the granny is sent to jail Patient’s agony in Call the Midwife

Diane Munday back in the 60s and now