STORY 2
"This is her story."
In November 2011, I came home from college to this devastating news. My sister had gone to the Rotunda Hospital for her routine pre-natal scan, she was 22 weeks pregnant. This is what would have been her 2nd child, as she already had a 4 year old boy, who desperately wanted a sibling, and was so excited at my sisters growing bump. As soon as the scan started the sonographer grew silent. She then went to get a doctor, while my sister and her husband waited nervously in the consultation room. After further scanning my sister and her husband were told that the baby had severe abnormalities, The brain of this baby never fully developed, and it had many other abnormalities, like Severe Spina-Bifida. They were sent home to be brought back in the next day to have further scanning, I will never forget this day as long as I live, seeing the devastation on my sisters face curled up on the sofa with her lip shaking while she tried to fight back the tears, as she felt like her world was falling apart, was so hard to watch.
The following day and after detailed scanning doctors came to the conclusion that the baby was in fact incompatible with life, and would not survive outside the womb if the pregnancy even managed to reach full term. She asked what could be done, as she did not want to carry the pregnancy to full term, having people ask her everyday, "did she know what she was having" "when was she due" etc. not to mention trying to explain to her 4 year old that his baby brother or sister would not be able to come home from hospital. She was told that because the baby had a heartbeat there was nothing that could be done for her in Ireland, as terminations even in these significant circumstances were against the law!! This just added further devastation to an already tragic situation. She was faced with the prospect of carrying this baby to full term, and instead of buying a crib for her baby she would be choosing a coffin! The hospital explained to her that their hands were tied because of the law of the land, and the only way she could have a termination, would be if she travelled abroad. They put her in touch with a family planning organization, who provided her with information on clinics in England who carried out this service. Both her and her husband booked flights to London, where she went in for the procedure, she was devastated and kept explaining to the nurses that she really wanted this baby, and that it would not survive once it was born, she was trying to justify herself as she felt like she was doing something wrong because her own country had made her feel this way, by not providing this service! She was blessed that her and her husband could financially afford to travel to have this procedure done, as I am aware many people are not able too. I can't imagine how heartbreaking this would be. It is absolutely disgusting that in this day and age women are forced to leave their own country in order to have terminations in cases where their much wanted baby would never survive.
For the people out there who don’t agree with any form of terminations for any grounds, "Pro-Lifers" and the like. I would like to say that if in a case where a child has had a severe traumatic injury and is on life-support, parents have to make a devastating decision to withdraw life-support where a child has no hope of recovery, is this not the same thing as a woman terminating a pregnancy when her unborn baby will not survive? I fully believe it's the same thing only in a different circumstance, so woman should not be ashamed of their decision to terminate a pregnancy where the fetus is not viable.
I am personally pro choice for anyone woman who feels it's right for her to terminate her pregnancy, I nor anybody else has the right to judge her decision.
It took my sister 5 years to have the courage to try again for another baby because of how traumatised she was. She has given birth to a perfect baby boy a few months ago thankfully.
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