LONDON, England, June 12, 2002 (LSN.ca) – An Englishwoman in her mid-20s is suing Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) for failing to warn her of the trauma she could suffer from having an abortion four years ago. In what is the first case of its kind in Britain, according to the BBC, she says that she was not told about the serious physical and mental damage the abortion would cause. “It was just very frightening,” she told a BBC radio programme. “It just felt what I was doing was wrong. I felt as soon it was done, I knew, ‘What a mistake’. I was denying it for years, for about three years I was trying to put it to the back of my mind as much as possible.” But no one in the health system had ever warned her of possible psychological harm, and therefore she did not have the opportunity to give “informed consent.” Three years later, she gave birth to a baby boy—an experience that brought on intense guilt and self-loathing over the killing of the child’s unborn sibling. “The feelings all flooded back again three years later, after I’d had my son. … I realised what I’d lost… I just felt near a nervous breakdown then.” The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published national guidelines in 2000 on what women should be told. These include possible complications like haemorrhage, uterine perforation, cervical trauma, and post-abortion infection. However, the College says it does not advise clinicians to warn of psychological problems. The question of psychological fall-out from abortion is controversial in mainstream and pro-abortion circles. “Pro-abortion groups,” the BBC says, “deny it is a problem at all,” while “pro-life groups claims that it is widespread but under-reported.” One pro-abortion doctor who has never met the patient in this case claimed the woman probably had a history of mental problems prior to the abortion—but to date there is no evidence to substantiate this. Nuala Scarisbrick, a director of the English pro-life group Life, said not only was the woman not told about the risk to her mental health, she was also not told that induced abortion could increase her risk of developing breast cancer. She applauded the woman’s “bravery” and hopes it will “encourage other women to speak out and take action.” To read BBC coverage see: https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_2038000/2038823.stm
To read coverage in The Times see: https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-324513,00.html and for an extended Q & A: https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,343-324642,00.html