Abortion threads

[ModerateOrGoodOccasionallyPoor]

Is it me, or are there a suspiciously excessive number of abortion threads lately?

They always seem to follow a bit of a formula as well. Long backstory of how accidental pregnancy happened, insistence that there was genuinely no desire to get PG, complicated relationship or lifestyle issues, loads of reasons why having the baby would be a massive spanner in the works, the OP often says she knows she should probably terminate but then asks 'what should I do?' There is often some sort of added dilemma or complication attached as well, such she's already got loads but it's her partner's only child and he wants to keep it, or he's recently widowed, or she is, or it's twins, or she's found out really late, or, or.

It's always a new user name and often not much engagement from the OP on the thread, past the initial post or a few posts dropped in just to keep the thread going.

I've been around for years and years and I've never seen as many of these threads as I'm seeing lately. There are new ones daily, it seems. What's the rub?

I've noticed this too, it's very odd.

Yes I was thinking the same. There’s been quite a few recently.

Yes and in quite a few of them the OP says she's a Christian, I've noticed. There's a definite "formula".

Absolutely spot on, OP.

Many years ago I asked MNHQ if they would delete reported posts that accused women who had, or were having, a perfectly legal medical procedure of ‘murder’ or ‘killing’, and MNHQ said yes they would.

I wish there could be a stickied post from MNHQ to this effect at the top of every thread about abortion, reminding posters that this is a UK-based site and that abortion is a perfectly legal medical procedure here; and that false equivalencies with crimes of violence will be neither welcome nor tolerated.

Yup, I've noticed this too. Like they're testing the public reaction to different scenarios.

Yes, that is EXACTLY it.

Yes I’ve noticed it too. I think when one poster posts about it, it must trigger another poster to think up a thread about it too to wind people up.

Yep. I posted something similar a couple of days ago. It’s incredibly worrying. Rights are hard won and easily lost.

There was a vote in the House of Commons on the matter, was it three weeks ago. There were the comments by Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver. So no wonder it has generated debate.

God knows MN is full of 'content creator' written, fake posts carefully crafted to generate traffic, divide opinion and lead to long running threads where there is little involvement from the OP once the touchpaper has been lit. They are predictably easy to spot and always under a new user name. But this subject in particular seems to be a bit of an obsession for someone. Or an orchestrated group of people with an agenda.

Yes thank you for articulating something I had noticed too.

Perhaps if we flag these posts to Mumsnet, they can respond with a standard post that says something like:

“Sorry to hear that you’re in this situation. Please make sure you access counselling from a reputable provider.”

And perhaps some useful links could be added for UK based Mumsnetters.

The most useful thing someone in this situation can do for themselves is to access support from a professionally trained, accredited counsellor.

Starting a genuine debate about the vote is perfectly fine. We are grown ups. We can have that debate. But does it really have to ellicited under the guise of a ficticious 'real life' dilemma several times a day by 'new' posters?

If you want to discuss what is or isn't acceptable in different scenarios or at different stages of gestation then just do that. Don't concoct elaborate stories to start the debate.

YANBU, I have been thinking much the same thing. Also lots of threads about how feminism is bad and we should all go back to 'traditional ' values, dress modestly, etc. There's an agenda, and it's about putting women back in their box.

Maybe a new subsection is needed

I don't find it at all surprising given UK abortion / accidental pregnancy stats. There were 250,000 abortions in England and Wales in 2022 (the most recent year there are figures for). Add in Scotland and Northern Ireland and we're probably averaging 300,000 abortions in a year. The number of accidental pregnancies must be much higher, when you allow for all the ones which end in miscarriages or births rather than abortions...it can't be less than 400,000? So 400,000 women are working through this every year. That's going to throw up a few threads on a forum called Mumsnet - its actually surprising there aren't more. My guess is that factors like cost of living are pushing up the number of 'unwanted' abortions - women who feel torn about the pregnancy but just don't feel the money adds up. So more dilemmas. Its a bit tinfoil hat to think that an emotive issue hundreds of thousands of women go through is popping up 'too much' on a forum aimed at women of the relevant age group.

I think it follows the Lily Allan podcast. It’s got the there but by the grace of God posters in a lather.

I thought it was because, say you find yourself in that situation you may google for advice and then a recent mumsnet post comes up, so you post there?

I think it is driven by the recent law change. It makes it a "topical" subject.

Indeed, @SumUp. Women benefit from encouragement to explore their options as soon as possible. In the UK and many other countries exploration of these options is free, and should be freely available.

There are many signposting resources online, for the different areas of the UK.

American fundamentalist “Christians” trying todo over here, what they have done over there. They are funding groups, funding legal action etc.

Awful people … nothing Christian about shouting at women outside clinics.

I think a lot of posts, in general, are written by those very young kinds of twats who work for MPs? Garnering public opinion.

I agree, suspicious but if genuine then I guess they have named changed as they might not want anyone to know their previous posts.

Yes, I'm sure that does happen sometimes.

That's almost certainly not what's happening here, on a recent almost epidemic-like basis.

I almost feel like it goes in cycles.

Last week it was full of pip/disability threads
This week it seems to be all about abortions

It's been going on since before that, but that has added to it, for sure.