Louise

The procedure was quick and relatively impersonal. The hospital I was at performs many abortions every day and I had only an hour to recover. I was awake during the whole thing. The first abortion i had was dificult as I went through it alone, only a few of my friends knew and we were young so they could do little to help. The second time was similar, though I had more support from friends, and the boy involved. My mother/family still does not know about it. The second time I felt ashamed as though I should have learnt my lesson and should have known better/acted more responsibly but I also felt that it was out of my hands, and that I could not be shamed into having a baby when I was still a child myself.

I was 15 the first time I got pregnant, I was not in a relationship and saw abortion as the only option. I told the father a week before the operation and he said he would come with me to the hospital, but the night before he called to say he was busy so I went alone. 6 months later, a day after I turned 16 I fell pregnant again. It was the same situation as the first and despite my shame and embarasment I repeated the process again. The hardest part for me to come to terms with is the fact that both times I had taken the emergency contraceptive pill, which doctors have told me fails only one time in every hundred.