Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Why women everywhere deserve a better choice than I had as a pregnant schoolgirl - a baby I didn't..
...want or a backstreet abortionist in rubber washing-up gloves
The ‘heartbeat’ bill passed last week makes it illegal to have an abortion after 6 weeks (the time doctors say they can detect life in the womb) and will become law next January. Georgia follows other states - Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa and North Dakota - in bowing to the right wing lobby and restricting a woman’s right to a legal termination.
These reactionary laws drive poor and very young women underground (not the middle classes, who can afford to travel), to illegal local abortionists, who can endanger their lives and potentially ruin their chances of ever having kids when the time is right.
I feel so strongly about this, because - as a seventeen year old teenager in London - I was stupid enough to get pregnant by a long-standing boyfriend, at a time when it was almost impossible to get an abortion without telling your parents, seeing a doctor and a psychiatrist.
----
I will never forget the long walk from the train station to a run-down building by a parade of shops. I rang a bell, went upstairs, handed over the money. I was told to take off my knickers and lie down on a kitchen table in a run down apartment. I was quaking with fear.
I won’t go into detail about the next ten minutes but it was horribly painful. I remember the woman wore a dirty apron and rubber washing up gloves. I staggered back to the station and the journey home passed in a blur. I had confided in one friend, who came around to my house, but couldn’t do much to help as I spent much of the next twenty four hours in the bathroom, bleeding profusely, with terrible stomach cramps.
These reactionary laws drive poor and very young women underground (not the middle classes, who can afford to travel), to illegal local abortionists, who can endanger their lives and potentially ruin their chances of ever having kids when the time is right.
I feel so strongly about this, because - as a seventeen year old teenager in London - I was stupid enough to get pregnant by a long-standing boyfriend, at a time when it was almost impossible to get an abortion without telling your parents, seeing a doctor and a psychiatrist.
----
I will never forget the long walk from the train station to a run-down building by a parade of shops. I rang a bell, went upstairs, handed over the money. I was told to take off my knickers and lie down on a kitchen table in a run down apartment. I was quaking with fear.
I won’t go into detail about the next ten minutes but it was horribly painful. I remember the woman wore a dirty apron and rubber washing up gloves. I staggered back to the station and the journey home passed in a blur. I had confided in one friend, who came around to my house, but couldn’t do much to help as I spent much of the next twenty four hours in the bathroom, bleeding profusely, with terrible stomach cramps.
[link:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7029179/JANET-STREET-PORTER-women-deserve-better-choice-pregnant-schoolgirl.html|
And here we go again....
16 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Calling them "barbaric" is an understatement. But following the money will hopefully provide some answers. 
