"Thank you for bringing this important issue to people’s
attention. I had a termination when I was 19. I remember considering picking up
the phone and ringing the out of hours doctor to get the morning after pill but
opted against it, partly because I thought “It won’t happen to me”
and partly because I didn’t want to cause a fuss. I am sick and tired of
reading articles and comment by women who seem to want to castigate me and
others like me for ever more, for a much regretted mistake. If I could turn
back the clock, I would have taken the emergency contraception in an instant. To
this day, my family don’t know that I had an
abortion. I came round from the operation and cried for my mum. If your
campaign helps one young woman avoid the heartbreak I have endured through this,
then I would consider it a success. There are many women who fear, after
abortion, that they won’t be able to have children – that’s a
mixture of guilt and despair at what they have gone through. The more this
stuff is discussed and debated, the more those women are vilified. Good luck
with your campaign."
Alison, 26, Glasgow
"I live in Argentina, I had two condoms split on me in the space of two months last year, after fifteen years of staunch condom reliability. On both occasions I was able to get the
morning after pill for my partner from two different chemists. The second pill was probably not recommended health-wise, but there were no long lasting side-effects. Around the same time I heard a very ignorant debate on the radio about giving the morning after pill to teenagers, this in a country where abortions are illegal and there is little sex education at school. Good luck with your campaign."