Just one month before the birth, I fell down a flight of stone steps leading to the coal cellar. Four weeks later on the day my baby should have been born I was received into Maternity Hospital where I was told there were serious complications. The fall had upset the whole picture. The baby's head now lay under my heart and the afterbirth was in the neck of the womb broken up, preventing entry into the world. So, after hours with no anaesthetic, the doctors managed to get all the afterbirth; I was suffering from severe haemorrhage and they then told me they were going to perform a caesarian operation - 'we can't promise you your child will live'. But God help me I knew then that child wanted to live and even though everything had gone which by the Law of Nature the child needed to survive, I told them the child was absolutely alive and fighting for survival, just jumping, trying to get out. I was almost sure the little one was screaming for help. We were both seriously ill for a long time. She is now herself a grandmother. I watched her beautiful daughters walk down to the altar, I heard them make their vows and I thought that if I'd had my way these beautiful people would have been lost to the world and the pain and joy and beauty which are the pattern of Life. It touches me most when my beautiful great-granddaughter runs to me, her little arms outstretched in love and greeting: 'Hello Grandma'.
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Before I entered the faith I had three abortions and one miscarriage and one attempted abortion, which thank God did not succeed as my youngest girl has looked after me in more ways than one. I am nearly 70 years old and experienced life. Incidentally, my daughter had three illegitimate children but I wouldn't hear of abortion knowing what I'd gone through. I had 2 nervous breakdowns due to emotional stress of the abortions and tried to commit suicide. That's what abortion does. Guilt.
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I had a back street abortion. I am now 64 and the horror of it still haunts me today. My daughter had an abortion (a legal one) 15 years ago. She has three other children and did not want another one and so they decided on the abortion. They have recently given up their restaurant when she found out she was pregnant as she could not run the place but refused to go through with another abortion. I have counselled many women on the brink of suicide because of an abortion.