Rita's Story

My Abortion Story – Rita

During my training I witnessed surgical termination of pregnancy (T.O.PS), which were gruesome. I’ll be honest and admit for the majority of it I could not watch and kept my head turned to the wall. The sound of the suction machine I remember vividly and the contents of the pump afterwards. I have nursed mothers who were depressed, crying and weeping in recovery after T.O.Ps, I don’t believe “relief” was the feeling they were experiencing. My heart still breaks for these women to think that the only option they felt they had was one that would end the life of their child. No amount of kindness or compassion at this time could console them. I only wanted to help relieve their suffering but post procedure that unfortunately was not my assigned role.

I saddens me to think that in the UK, almost 9 million babies have been aborted to date. How many of them experienced the fate I observed? How many women are now suffering from their experience? How many were not loved and supported as they needed and deserved? Surely, we can offer women better than abortion in this day of age.

I cannot help but worry about the way our politicians are dealing with this referendum. They have without any consultation with GPs and nurses decided that they will be the ones rolling out this service nationally if the 8th is repealed. There seems to be no consideration of how they may feel about being forced to provide such a service, the mental and emotional impact on them of doing same. Where is their choice? GPs and nurses are the back bone of our health service and deserve respect, not this! They have not considered the needs of the mother in this. Waiting in a packed surgery with parents of sick children, a 15min consultation does not seem adequate of fair to either the woman or GP involved, and are they to experience this ordeal at home, how do they deal with a termination of the type I experienced, a live baby fighting for life. How are these women, especially young and vulnerable women expected to cope with this scenario? It just seems barbaric and ill-considered to me. The arrogance of our politicians is terrifying. I have lost all faith in them. They over recent years seen to be dictating to GP, demanding more and more of them. They are over worked and underappreciated. They deserve better. Women deserve better!

I’m an advocate for reproductive freedom, I am also an advocate for women’s and indeed men’s mental and emotional freedom. We should be exploring the reasons behind crisis pregnancy, so that no woman will ever have to make the difficult decision to end the life of their own child.

Now I am of a generation that the repeal campaign will accuse of only being pro-life for religious reasons, but it is my life experience that has led me to the view that the 8th must be saved, not some religious ideology. I cannot stand by and do nothing while our media and politician attempt to mislead the Irish people. I will therefor canvass every door I can, not to tell people how to vote but to give them the truth about what our politicians are proposing, to tell them what I saw as a nurse, so they can make an informed choice on referendum day.