‘I panicked, I thought it was a good idea’
The Herald spoke to several women about their abortions. The women were aged from their 20s to their 50s. They all had different reasons, and the experience had different impacts on them. They have different views on the reforms
For Jennifer* the overriding feeling of her abortion was one of relief.
An artist, she was in her first year at university three years ago when she got pregnant. She was 20.
Family Planning organised it all and she was told to state explicitly that she would be in mental or physical danger if the pregnancy went ahead.
“She said if I did not say that I would not be allowed an abortion.
“For me, it wasn’t going to be physically detrimental so I had to say I would be mentally compromised, which was a lie.
“Really, I was just in my first year of university and I didn’t want to have a baby.”
Most abortions take place within three weeks of that first request, but for Jennifer it took 10 weeks.
She had terrible morning sickness which had meant she had to quit her job and could not go to university. “I was basically vomiting the whole time.”
It also meant she had to have a surgical abortion rather than the medical abortion she had wanted.
She said the physical healing afterwards was harder than she expected. “But mentally and emotionally I was really good. I know I’m not alone in that. A lot of people feel relief.”
She now helps out on the campaign for law reform and wanted reforms that would give women the ability to get an abortion without having to pass some form of test. “I strongly believe it’s nobody’s business except the person who is pregnant.”
She had no regrets.
* Not her real name
Barbara Hill
Barbara Hill had an abortion in the late 1970s, soon after it became available legally. She was 28, and not in a relationship with the father.
“I panicked, I thought it was a good idea. It was expedient and it got me out of a tight spot.”
Hill was one of eight mothers who have had abortions and took out a newspaper advertisement to argue for care in the reforms alongside Family First.
She said she was “a bit of Germaine Greer’s right-hand woman at the time”. Abortion was a big issue among the feminist movement, and that was the backdrop to her thinking around it.
“I just went on with my life, but looking back I changed markedly at that time. I’d always been a bit of a party animal and that increased. But underneath there was this part of me I was protecting.”
When she had children later, she struggled to bond with her firstborn. She was angry and distant.
It took a long time and a lot of counselling before she put the grief aside. “It doesn’t define me anymore. It’s just a piece of my life where I made a bad choice.”
She is now a churchgoer and knows people will assume religion is behind her decision to oppose reform. But she does not think it is realistic to ban abortion.
“Please be cautious about amending a law which is already able to give us virtually abortion on demand. I just wonder if you open it any wider what we open ourselves up for.
“I’m not saying every woman feels like this. I’m just saying we need to consider this carefully.”
She would like women to be able to see a scan of their child before deciding and consider options such as abortion and keeping the child.