Anyone watching the abortion programme tonight?

[dogwalker]

or is it just too morbid and horrible to even think about watching? I'm not sure yet - I think it may be too upsetting.

hi all, i saw the program,
I felt I wanted to understand more.
I dont think it was objective, seemed more pro abortion/choice and was trying to justify abortions. I would be interested in seeing a program that examined both sides thoroughly.
the woman was so flipant about her reason for aborting her child. Of course it was her choice, it just left a sour feeling with me. she seems to have tried very hard to detach herself emotionally from it all.

I was in tears when I watched, the actual procedure was heartwrenching. when the terminator (sounds a bit weird typed but ykwim) was washing the sieve and looking at it i wanted to wail.

The 3d pics were harrowing, esp the 23wk one, it was a baby, a real baby, so tiny but so real.
sorry if I am offending I am just shaken up about it.

my mum begged me to abort ds1 when I was p/g with him (young at time) all day everyday for over 6mths. She now regrets this and was in tears when she talked to me about this.

Please dont take offense anyone who has had to make such a hard choice. I really am not judging I have reread and deleted alot of things. cos I dont want to hurt anyone.

I just feel so sad.

The programme was not given enough time to discuss all the issues surrounding this awful topic. The images were harrowing yes, but I don;t think they addressed the issues that face women when choosing to abort and focused too much on Julia's own pgcy, hardly a fair debate given her condition.

What I do object to is the METHOD in which later abortions are done. I have done lots of reading on this following a TOP myself nearly 10 years ago at 8 weeks. The programme touched on these later abortions through the consultant at Kings, who told us he prefers to 'dismember' them. If anyone has read what happens to some babies after 24 weeks if they are aborted you know what an awful procedure that is and I can't tell you in words - it;s too gruesome. I'm not talking here about those that are terminated for medical reasons as they are given an injection first. I'm talking about terminations for social reasons and it does go on, after the 24 week mark, all around the world. Canada particularly has no legal limit for abortion and they use this method I talk of. I'm not sure it is allowed to happen now in the UK, but even so the method they use to dismember the body of a baby (which they have to do from about 16 weeks) to get it out when we saw those 3D images of the baby, is too much for me to bear.

Since the abortion act has not been revised since '67, I hope the least this prgramme could do is spark off debate as to the legal limit for 'social' reasons, now that so much is known about the world of the unborn baby.

i decided to watch it even though i knew it would upset me. like mears i felt it was handled sensitively and in a balanced way. i am pro-choice. i feel that the 1967 law should be revised in terms of its language and the circumstances under which a later abortion can be performed. i remain firmly pro-choice, which is part of the reason i watched it: if you're going to argue for something, i feel you should know what you are actually arguing for. i found the pro-life interviewees far more reasonable than i thought they would be and found julia black's point that there was more common ground between the two sides than she expected one of the most interesting aspects of the programme. i thought the kings college consultant was incredibly brave to talk so frankly given how much hatred he will face/does face for what he does. this programme made me cry, made me feel that the pregnant form is one of the most beautiful things on this planet, as is having a child and that legal, safe abortion performed as early as possible, but allowable later in exceptional circumstances has to be the right thing. brave programming from channel 4.

Didn't watch it as I have been through one before and have had a child either side of it.
It's there, it's legal and if seeing a balanced (which hopefully it sounds like it was) programme on it helps better choices and helps women look after themselves and use contraception to prevent abortions being performed (it is an operation after all) then it can be positive.

Didn't watch and am pro-choice. I agree that the 1967 law should be debated particularly with regard to late abortion - the age by which a foetus is considered viable have certainly moved on. The issues reagrding disability however need careful consideration and late abortion should still be available in exceptional circumstances - I don't believe the cleft palate case recently reported could be considered exceptional.

I couldn't bear to watch the programme as I still find it hard to live with the termination I had at 6 weeks, 5 years ago.

Mine, like Mears described, was a Medical TOP, with a pill where you are fully conscious throughout and it is like a self-induced miscarriage. In many ways I wish i had have had the surgical version so that I wouldn't have had to go through the harrowing guilt ridden experience whilst awake. I remember feeling the 'products of conception' pass and I was hit by the enormity and huge regret in true 'ton of bricks' fashion. Then having to take the sanitary towel (provided by the hospital) with my aborted foetus on it to the nurse for inspection was just hideous. For me it was the most awful thing I have ever experienced and will always be tinged with deep regret. Of course I will never know whether the pregnancy would've even survived to term had I have made a different decision but that never stops me remembering (and marking) the due date of the baby that never was (May 1st).

I felt that the programme was likely just to compound the guilt feelings further and deepen the wounds inflicted by that choice made 5 years ago. For me, knowing that when a termination occurs, the foetus dies, is horrifying enough. I do not need to see it portrayed in intimate 'live' detail, IYSWIM.

However, despite my experience and subsequent feelings towards it, I am still pro-choice, although I really do wish that the cut-off date for abortion was lowered. My second pregnancy was lost at 24 weeks, she died in-utero at 24 weeks and was delivered at 26 weeks. She was a whole, but tiny, baby. A complete human being, knowing that she was at a viable age and that up to a few days before 24 weeks she could still have been terminated fills me with horror. Having seen a 24 week foetus 'in the flesh' makes the cut off date abhorrent.

I do agree with what others have said in that late abortions (over 14 - 16 weeks in my mind), should only be granted in exceptional circumstances.

I didn't see it - the football was on and dh wasn't going to miss that! However, I am pleased it sounds like it was a pretty balanced programme. I hope it takes away some of the awful stigma around termination. I am fiercely (informed) pro-choice and I was pleased to see an interview with Jo Whiley who talked about her love and commitment to her severely disabled sister with cri du chat syndrome but who still said that had any of her babies tested positive for it, she would have had a termination. I thought that was very brave of her to be honest, and it showed you that a pro-choice stance is not an unloving one. Also a women I interviewed who had one son with Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy and had recently terminated another pregnancy after CVS showed the foetus also had DMD, and I thought, nobody normal or sane could do anything but support that decision. However, I am also very grateful I have never had to make a decision around termination - I think I would find it personally very hard - and I am pretty repulsed by late terminations unless in very specific circumstances. I think it should be an absolute right to terminate up to 12 weeks, but maybe the law does need looking at again now we know so much more about the foetus at later stages, and younger babies are viable. I also think that there should be support for women who do not want to terminate and that drs should be extremely sensitive towards women who might be wavering. To regret a termination seems very, very sad.

I watched the programme and found it very strong, stomach-churning stuff indeed. But I felt it was a personal journey for the woman and that she wasn't condemning anyone or wanting to engender feelings of guilt. I think if it stimulates discussion about revising the 1967 Act, then that must be a good thing.