II Thousands Speak (continued) Caring women
Doctors have no monopoly on the pain that medical staff endure during the process of the abortion. After the corrupting business of dismembering the child, it is the task of the theatre nurse to put together what was, moments before, a living child. It is her important job to ensure that the doctor has left nothing behind that might cause infection. It is a degrading job and many nurses have written to say that they were forced by superiors or circumstances into the theatre and will never forget their experience there. They also say that despite a 'conscience clause' they risk being passed over for promotion and are less likely to be appointed if they question the ethics of these horrific operations. There are many caring professionals involved with the pregnancy of a woman and many of these, too, are women. This last section of letters are from women caring for women. Many professionals recognise that there are two patients to be cared for; and that both the woman and child are entitled to love and practical help. The first letters are from women who began their career before the 1967 Act and have seen a change in attitude in the intervening years. I started a General Nursing Training in 1921 when the medical profession was very much a law unto itself with rigid principles of behaviour even for the back street abortionist. The 'needlewomen' with their sharpened knitting needles all seemed to observe an unwritten law in the timing of their administrations. Their more unfortunate results ended up in hospital but those pregnancies were never more than four months. Often the woman lied to the abortionist to get her to take them and it is those women who were more often than not in hospital. The medical profession must give some balanced thought and judgement to foetal rights.
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