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I Told My Mum I Was Going on an RE Trip

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In February 2017, I was lucky enough to see the play

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I Told My Mum I Was Going On An RE Trip, in Manchester,

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when Contact and Liverpool-based 20 Stories High developed this

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piece of theatre about abortion.

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It's a verbatim piece made from hundreds of hours of interviews,

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with young women in Britain and in Northern Ireland.

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And you'll see that the four young actors have earpieces

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and are actually listening to the original recordings

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as they perform.

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The subject is challenging and some viewers might find it upsetting.

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But on the 50th anniversary of the legalisation of abortion in Britain,

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writer Julia Samuels explores the ways in which society deals with

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the subject, how it impacts on women today and, importantly,

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asks the question - what would happen if we started to talk

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openly about it?

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This programme contains some strong language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

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Three, two, one, play.

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-RECORDING PLAYS THROUGH EARPHONES:

-My name's Paige...

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My name's Paige. I've had three pregnancies, two with terminations,

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and one, I had a child.

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My first pregnancy, when I was 17, which I terminated.

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My second, I was 20, gave birth at 21.

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And then my third, I was still 21, six months after having

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my daughter, Paitlyn.

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I'm Leah, 22. I have four kids.

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I had my first child at 16,

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and I had the abortion at about 17.

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Em...

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I'm going to talk a wee bit about it.

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I'm Tanaya and I'm 24 years old,

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and when I was 16, I had an abortion.

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My impregnator was a 21-year-old drug dealer,

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and so it was just not ever going to be the right thing for me to do.

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One, two, one, two.

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This is Cousin on the mic.

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From Manchester to Liverpool to Belfast...

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to Harare, Zimbabwe.

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My story goes undocumented, unrecorded.

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But I have a story to tell.

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So check it.

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Like, any girl over here,

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we would be really uneducated about it, really.

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There's nothing over here for them, other than Google.

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Of course, we typed it into Google, all the horrific stories come up

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and the pictures come up.

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-Did you learn anything in school?

-Never did anything about it

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in science, never did anything about it in, you know, social health...

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-Yeah.

-..or anything like that.

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It wasn't a very openly talked about thing, unless it was sort of

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in the nervous kind of joking sense.

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I know, like, a lot of young males

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like to joke about a lot of things, especially when it's a serious topic

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like this. So the only thing I'd ever really learned about it

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from friends was, like, jokes about like promiscuous girls

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getting abortions and whatnot, which is obviously false,

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but I think that's about it from like...

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-From friends?

-Yeah. Mad friends.

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I had a pregnancy scare. I wasn't pregnant, but I was talking

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to my sister and I was going, "Oh, my God, I'm pregnant.

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"I'm going to have to get an abortion, I'm going to have

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"to get an abortion." And I was going, "Is it like how they say

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"in like Dirty Dancing?" I was just absolutely convinced

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that I was going to end up like Penny, just like on the bed

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with Patrick Swayze next to me, going, "What are you doing?!"

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It's a bit weird.

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-I think if I had Patrick Swayze next to me...

-Yeah.

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-..I would have gone through the process.

-Yeah, me too!

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I went to a Catholic school, and in RE, I was shown

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an abortion video. Not only did it have what looked like

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a full-term baby shown on the screen, but it had, like,

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horror music with a piano.

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Like the Psycho music.

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-You know like?

-Yeah. Psycho music.

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Proper "eee, eee, eee, eee, eee!"

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THEY GIGGLE

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When I found out I was pregnant the first time,

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I decided literally from the get-go.

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I explored the idea of keeping it, must have been for about

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ten, 15 minutes, and then I was just like, "No, it's not the right

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"thing to do." And cos my mum, the type of mum my mum is,

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she's like, "This is what you're supposed to do," as in you

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find somebody you love, then you buy a house, then you make babies,

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do you know what I mean?

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So, like, for me, I was just like, this is everything against

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what my mum wants. I've got nowhere to live,

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I'm still in school, like.

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He's not even my boyfriend. She just wouldn't have had it.

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Well, I thought not anyway.

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I was on another planet at that age.

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I didn't get on with my family at all and I was finding myself

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in this sort of spiral of like doing really bad things, rebelling.

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I did think about keeping the baby, on some occasions,

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but the sort of sense of, "Oh, my God, like, what would happen?"

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was just so overbearing, like.

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I thought that my mum would kill me.

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I remember I was at my boyfriend's house and I was smoking

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some weed, and I'd fallen asleep.

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And she was ringing me, and it was two o'clock in the morning,

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and eventually I called her back and she was like,

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"Where are you?" She was going to kill me, etc, etc.

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She came to pick me up and then my sister

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was driving, and my mum took her shoe off and she was hitting me

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with it. My sister was like, "Don't do it now, do it when

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"we get home."

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We got home and my mum got a knife from the kitchen cupboard,

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and she was just like...

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The things that she was saying were about, like, you...

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What... SHE SIGHS

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It's hard to translate this directly into English, but it was

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sort of like, "What you're doing to my, like, respect,

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"like what you're doing to my standard in the community,

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"I won't have it, I won't have it."

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That was just me staying out somewhere till

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two o'clock in the morning.

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Imagine what it would have been like

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if I'd have come home and said I was pregnant?

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The second time I got pregnant, so Paul, my partner, was in the house

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with his two kids. So I just walked straight past him,

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went in the bathroom, shut the door and done the test,

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and I was like this, sat waiting.

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And then when it said positive, I was just sobbing on the toilet.

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So, by this point, he was like, "What's going on? Let me in

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"the bathroom." So he ended up picking the lock with a knife

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and come in. And I was just sobbing and he was just like...

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He thought I'd lost a job or something,

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so I picked the pregnancy test up

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and threw it at him and went, "I'm pregnant."

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So then he was like, "Why are you crying? That's good news."

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But I didn't think it was at the time.

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I was like, "How on Earth is that good news? I'm going to lose uni,

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"I'm going to lose my job, blah, blah, blah."

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It's just not the right time.

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And he was sobbing, saying, "Oh, please, please, please.

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"I want to you to keep it," and all that.

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And in my head, from that point, I was like,

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"I'm not having this baby, one bit."

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I'll be honest, I'm not very responsible.

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So I was sort of like taking the pill one day,

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then not taking it the other.

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I just assumed that however much I was taking, that would be enough

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to, like, you know, stop a baby from occurring.

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So then, right, I decided, OK, I'm going to go to the Brook.

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And I went with my boyfriend and when she said,

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"I'd like to inform you that you are pregnant," that moment, I just

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felt sick straightaway.

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I mean, all the questions of, like,

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my college, everything, my ambitions, my boyfriend.

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I also remember me being really dramatic, like,

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"My family is Muslim!" Like, "I'm having an abortion."

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I was just really angry, like, "Of course I can't keep it!"

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-Abortion's still illegal in Ireland.

-Is it?

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-Now?

-They have pure protests and pure, like, Irish people

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-and all that.

-So you can't...

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There's nowhere to get an abortion in Ireland?

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-Or Northern Ireland.

-Or Northern Ireland?

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No, but they have, like, people online over there who sell tablets

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what can trigger abortions and stuff like that. But these are the extents

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-what the girls over there have to go through.

-Oh, my God.

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I was pregnant when I was 16, with Ashley,

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and I kind of knew it was my decision to have her.

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And then March 2012, I got pregnant again and I decided that it

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was the wrong time and that's when I thought, like, I had to have

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the abortion. I just thought about Ashley, her dad wasn't about,

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so I thought I had to give her my 110% attention.

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So, she kind of made the decision a bit easier as well.

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And I couldn't... Like, mentally, I had depression and stuff.

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I just thought having this baby's not for me, not at this time.

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And then I told my mum straightaway because I knew I needed

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help to have the abortion.

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So, she was just kind of like,

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"It's your decision. It's your choice.

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"I'll support you either way."

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And...

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Well, for like us, we have to...

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I had to go to my doctor and I told him

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I wanted to have an abortion.

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And he was very much against it and said that he wouldn't advise me

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to do it and wouldn't put me in contact with anybody to do it, so...

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It didn't matter what anybody thought they knew.

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It didn't matter, cos we snuck around and hid the truth.

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It didn't matter, cos his heart was mine, and mine his, entwined.

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But after seeing two pink lines, I knew there were two hearts

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beating inside of me.

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Couldn't believe, cried so hard I couldn't breathe.

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This would be the end of my life, if they knew I had a baby.

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# I never knew I could feel this way

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# About someone, it's kind of crazy

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# But there's something about you

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# That's got me breaking the rules

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# Ooh

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# Breaking the rules

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# Aah

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# Aah, aah

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# Ooh, ooh. #

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So, they sent me off to have the scan and they put that stuff

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on your belly that feels like hand sanitizer, really cold!

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And then, at that point, the screen was facing me

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and I just remember feeling like, this is such a grown-up thing,

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I can't believe, like, I'm here doing such a grown-up thing.

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And the scan lady said, "Oh, are you keeping this baby?"

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And I said, "No." So she just turned the screen round.

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I then had to go to Manchester Pregnancy Advisory Service.

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No-one could accompany me to that, so I went on my own,

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and then I...

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I went into the room and it was my family GP.

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And I was just like, "I can't believe, like, my family GP

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"who's been my family GP since I was, like, a baby,

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"moonlights as an abortion doctor!"

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And he's also Bengali.

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And so then, it was just...

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Well, you know, of course he can't say anything, but as soon as

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they came out of the room, when it was done, I changed doctors

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really quickly!

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If people have got goals in life -

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so they're 16 years old, they're planning on doing A-levels,

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then uni - they, more often than not, choose termination.

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If they're 16 years old and they say, "Ah, he's very nice

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"and I might as well just have the baby. He's already got two

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"to somebody else, but..."

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If they haven't got any other life goal, then having a baby

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seems to be their goal, which is OK.

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What we've got to be is completely non-judgmental.

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So you might think, "Oh, God, here you are again.

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"Now, you're 19, you've had three terminations in the past,"

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it might be quite irritating to us.

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But we don't let that show.

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Cos the one thing that I always say to them is,

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"The decision you make today is right for you today.

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"It's nobody else's business.

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"So it might be different next year, it might be different

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"in five years' time, but today you're making the right decision."

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Our Paige said to me, "I'm going to go to the doctors and talk about

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"my options," is what she said to me.

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And I just said to her, "Paige, you've got no options

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"at the end of the day, because if you get rid of this baby,

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"then I just don't know if I could have ever spoke to her again,"

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because I just thought...

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I don't know, I just think it's selfish, to be honest.

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I just think it's really selfish.

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I think if you're going to get pregnant,

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you need to take on the responsibility.

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Why should we decide whether somebody lives or dies?

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Do you know what I mean?

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No, not "somebody", Sherry Ann.

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If it was somebody who'd already been born, we don't get to make

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the choice whether somebody lives or dies

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once they're already here. So what makes it any different

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when they're inside your stomach? Do you know what I mean?

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You was here telling me not to get rid of it, our Zoe was in here

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telling me not to get rid of it.

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My mum was saying, "I'm not saying nothin'."

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But, basically, subliminally telling me not to get rid of it,

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and I thought, "No, I need to just remove myself from what

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"all them people are saying," and this needs to be my decision.

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Your decision.

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So, if it turns out that I do want to get rid of this baby

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-and Sherry Ann hates me, I'm sure she'll come round in the end.

-Yeah.

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Cos what will I do if I have this baby and I cannot take care of her?

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That's when they told me that you could have the tablet.

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You have a tablet and then you miscarry.

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Or you could have the... I think it was called something like...

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Something like evacuation or something,

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I can't remember what it was called, but they suck it out.

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Vacuum something.

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Vacuumasperosis!

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I can't remember what it was called!

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It's just all words. When you're 16 years old, they don't mean anything.

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But I decided that I'd prefer to have that one and, unfortunately,

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I wasn't far enough along, it has to be after six weeks.

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And I just remember, like, it was really hard.

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I booked a doctor's appointment.

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So she done this thing and she was like,

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"Oh, my God, you're five months pregnant."

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So I was like, "Oh, my God, no!"

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So she was like, "Why are you crying?"

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And I was like, "Cos that means it's too late to get an abortion."

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So she was like, "We're going to have to send you for a scan

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"to see how exactly how far you're on."

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Cos you could get an abortion up to 18 to 20 weeks,

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but not in Liverpool, nowhere in Liverpool does it.

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So she was like, "Just before that point, you will still be able

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"to get it." But in my head, I was thinking, "I can't cos it's

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"a full blown baby then."

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So I was like, "Oh, God. I went to the appointment and our Shana

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came with me.

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And then they done the scan, but they don't let you see it

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when you're supposed to be at an abortion.

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They say, "We're not going to show you it, it's just to see how

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"far you are." So then the woman done it and our Shana was looking

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at the screen and as soon as she seen it, she was like,

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"Oh, my God!" So then I was like to the woman, "I want to see it,"

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and she was like, "I really don't think that's a good..."

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And I was like, "No, I want to see it."

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And then as soon as I seen it, I was just like,

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"Oh, my God, having an abortion, I can't."

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Well, we went home and discussed everything with my mum

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and she done all the googling, all the research, and spoke it over

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with me. It was hard, it was difficult.

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We told so many lies to get the money.

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It was unbelievable.

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And I had to get, like, a fast-track passport the day before

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and that was like £110 on top of 80 something for the flights

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and then £800 for the abortion.

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I definitely think there should be more fight

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for it to be legal over here.

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I just think that if it becomes legalised here,

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then I think more and more people will become more careless

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and then more and more people have abortions.

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I just feel like it's murdering someone.

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Like, I just don't understand how you could just kill something

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so precious that's living inside of you.

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And it's technically your fault, unless it was due to something

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with like, like rape or something like that.

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And if people don't have to live with consequences,

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then they're not going to change their actions.

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I'd just like to...

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I'll say that, everyone is entitled to their own opinion

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and everyone should have a choice, which is hence the pro-choice.

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I feel like if you're on the pro-choice end, you're saying yes

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to both. You are entitled to have a child if you want

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and you're entitled to abort the child if you want.

0:18:580:19:01

If you're on the pro-life end, you're just taking that choice away,

0:19:010:19:04

and I feel like a choice is a human right.

0:19:040:19:07

I also had to schedule it around my exams, because my college

0:19:100:19:15

is a Catholic college. So I could get away with saying that I had

0:19:150:19:18

an RE trip. So I told my mum I was going on an RE trip

0:19:180:19:23

and I needed to be at Piccadilly Bus Station for seven o'clock

0:19:230:19:27

in the morning in order to get to the clinic by half past eight,

0:19:270:19:30

so you could have that day without being kept overnight.

0:19:300:19:34

Because I'm not allowed to... Well, at that age,

0:19:340:19:36

I wasn't allowed to stay out overnight.

0:19:360:19:38

Hiding in the shadows.

0:19:460:19:48

You ask a friend.

0:19:500:19:51

She knows a friend who knows a friend of a friend.

0:19:540:19:57

And then late one night, it comes back to you.

0:20:020:20:06

An address.

0:20:090:20:10

Number 23 Rukuhia Street, Epworth.

0:20:120:20:17

And the price...

0:20:200:20:21

..100.

0:20:250:20:28

My partner, he was still kind of like a wee teenage boy.

0:20:380:20:41

He wasn't really supportive, he didn't really care.

0:20:410:20:45

He didn't worry about how I got there or where I was getting

0:20:450:20:48

the money to get it done.

0:20:480:20:50

When I was pregnant the first time, and obviously the lad I was seeing,

0:20:540:20:58

I'd been seeing him for years, but he was a bellend, you know

0:20:580:21:01

what I mean?

0:21:010:21:02

So I said straightaway, "Well, I'm getting an abortion anyway."

0:21:020:21:05

And he was like, "It's not just your baby, it's not just your choice

0:21:050:21:07

"to make." And I was like, "No, mate, but it's my body

0:21:070:21:10

"and you're not even committing to me now, so why am I going

0:21:100:21:13

"to have a baby for you to leave the both of us?"

0:21:130:21:15

My boyfriend was really supportive, actually.

0:21:170:21:21

I remember he said that if I wanted to keep the baby that he would

0:21:210:21:24

tell his mum and we would be able to sort it out,

0:21:240:21:28

but I just kind of saw that as an annoyance, really.

0:21:280:21:31

Just thinking, "Don't make me feel any emotion

0:21:310:21:34

"towards this thing."

0:21:340:21:36

But then, on reflection, obviously, that was a really kind thing

0:21:380:21:41

that he'd offered to do.

0:21:410:21:43

The night before, he was like out drinking or something.

0:21:430:21:46

And I sent him a message, like, "Are you being fucking serious, like?

0:21:460:21:49

"I'm going for an abortion in the morning, it's two o'clock

0:21:490:21:52

"and you're absolutely out getting drunk and doing whatever."

0:21:520:21:55

But say you're not you...

0:21:570:22:00

OK, I'm not me.

0:22:000:22:02

-Shut up. And a girl gets pregnant.

-Yes.

0:22:020:22:06

-And you...

-Wait, am I me or...?

0:22:060:22:09

-What?

-Am I not me?

-No, no, this other person.

-Yeah.

0:22:090:22:13

And you get this girl pregnant and she...

0:22:130:22:17

-You don't want her to get rid of the baby.

-Yes.

0:22:190:22:21

-And she wants to get rid of it.

-Yeah.

0:22:210:22:23

-Do you think that's fine?

-That's her choice.

0:22:230:22:26

-And do you think that's right?

-Well, yeah, because it's up to her,

0:22:260:22:30

she's going through it, do you know what I mean?

0:22:300:22:32

And if she really wants the abortion, I'd say,

0:22:320:22:34

"Listen, you know, my point of view, there's nothing more I can do."

0:22:340:22:37

Yeah, but it...

0:22:370:22:39

-It's sly, yeah.

-It's proper unfair.

0:22:400:22:43

-It's unfair, but that's...

-Like, I know it's her choice to do

0:22:440:22:47

whatever she wants to do with her body, but it's also his baby.

0:22:470:22:53

Yeah.

0:22:530:22:54

-That's when you'd have a conversation.

-I'm sure...

0:22:560:22:58

..a baby is more important than a body. But then I think, again,

0:23:000:23:06

after saying that, if I was in that situation and a lad really

0:23:060:23:12

wanted to keep the baby...

0:23:120:23:14

..I don't know what I could do, because I don't know if I could,

0:23:170:23:20

like, carry this baby in me for so long and then just let it go and not

0:23:200:23:26

do anything for this child.

0:23:260:23:28

But then, I don't want it killed.

0:23:310:23:34

-So what would you do?

-I'd say no!

0:23:340:23:36

-Cos the time's ticking.

-I'd probably kill myself!

0:23:360:23:38

-Then you're killing you and the baby.

-I know, I might as well

0:23:400:23:43

just kill the baby!

0:23:430:23:44

-No, I don't mean that.

-No.

0:23:460:23:48

The time I was pregnant with Paitlyn, well, Paul, my partner,

0:23:480:23:52

had put pure emotional pressure on me to have the baby.

0:23:520:23:55

So then, this time when I got caught pregnant again,

0:23:550:23:58

well, I knew straightaway what I needed to do.

0:23:580:24:00

I couldn't manage another baby.

0:24:000:24:02

I didn't want to tell Paul before I'd done it,

0:24:020:24:04

I didn't want him getting in my head and making me

0:24:040:24:06

do something that I didn't want to do.

0:24:060:24:08

The relationship already wasn't in a good place,

0:24:080:24:10

and he wouldn't do anything to help me with Paitlyn, wouldn't even

0:24:100:24:13

change a nappy.

0:24:130:24:15

Like, he was there, but not there, if you know what I mean?

0:24:150:24:17

So I just went and had the procedure and decided I'd tell him

0:24:170:24:20

when it's all over.

0:24:200:24:21

When I decided to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology,

0:24:230:24:27

at that time, everyone did abortion.

0:24:270:24:31

And so, I just did abortions,

0:24:310:24:32

and I didn't really stop to think about whether it was good or bad or

0:24:320:24:37

how I felt about it.

0:24:370:24:38

But I suppose, over the years, I've become more of an advocate

0:24:400:24:45

for the need to provide abortion care.

0:24:450:24:48

So I think we need to recognise that a woman's lifetime chance

0:24:500:24:53

of having an abortion in the United Kingdom is one in three,

0:24:530:24:56

and so I find myself thinking that gynaecologists should

0:24:560:25:03

do abortions and that if you don't want to do abortions,

0:25:030:25:07

then perhaps you should think about taking another speciality,

0:25:070:25:12

so become a dermatologist or a chest physician,

0:25:120:25:15

or something like that.

0:25:150:25:16

I'm a Christian and I am a gynaecologist, but I personally

0:25:180:25:23

have chosen not to do abortions because I feel very strongly

0:25:230:25:27

that the pregnancy that is developing is a mini person

0:25:270:25:34

that is created in the image of God.

0:25:340:25:36

And whilst I don't judge other doctors for performing abortions,

0:25:360:25:40

and I know that most doctors don't like to do abortions,

0:25:400:25:43

but they choose to do them for people to have choices,

0:25:430:25:46

I don't feel that's something that I am able to do.

0:25:460:25:49

The problem becomes if you work in a hospital where two or three doctors

0:25:510:25:55

say, "No, I won't do abortions because it's against my religion,"

0:25:550:25:58

the burden then falls on a small number of others,

0:25:580:26:03

who then become fed up with being asked to do all the abortions

0:26:030:26:06

and then they eventually react by saying, "Well, I'm not going

0:26:060:26:10

"to do them any more either."

0:26:100:26:11

So, eventually, you end up with very few gynaecologists prepared

0:26:110:26:16

to do abortions.

0:26:160:26:18

-They're not humans yet, Sherry Ann.

-They are humans. They're not growing

0:26:180:26:21

into Martians, they're growing into babies.

0:26:210:26:24

But what I'm saying is they're not anything yet, they're cells,

0:26:240:26:27

-they're a mass of cells.

-So where should life start?

0:26:270:26:29

-So where should we have rights?

-Once you enter the world,

0:26:290:26:33

independently, breathing for yourself. Not an umbilical cord...

0:26:330:26:37

-So then that means that you should be able to have abortions...

-..connected to my stomach, babe.

0:26:370:26:41

..until full-term. So you should be able to have abortions

0:26:410:26:43

until you're full-term, then?

0:26:430:26:45

That's what you've just basically said,

0:26:450:26:47

you should be able to have an abortion until you're full-term.

0:26:470:26:50

-It shouldn't have rights until it's come out.

-No.

0:26:500:26:53

Obviously, there should be laws to how far you can do it,

0:26:530:26:56

because obviously it feels pain and whatever, whatever,

0:26:560:27:01

but if the cells have not got a brain, they cannot feel pain.

0:27:010:27:06

Sherry Ann, they can't feel nothin'!

0:27:060:27:09

You can't be for abortion if you're going to say,

0:27:090:27:12

"But when they can feel, it's wrong."

0:27:120:27:15

-Yeah.

-No. How's that make sense?

0:27:170:27:20

I don't agree with doing it while you can feel that it's a baby,

0:27:200:27:25

and you can get a scan and you can see it's got a head,

0:27:250:27:28

it's got arms, it's got legs, it's got a willy.

0:27:280:27:31

None of that. But if I was...

0:27:310:27:33

Well, babe, look at my 13-week scan, it's got a head, it's got a body,

0:27:330:27:37

it's got arms, it's got legs.

0:27:370:27:38

-I wouldn't get one then.

-But you would, because how far were you

0:27:400:27:43

when you got one?

0:27:430:27:45

Eight weeks.

0:27:450:27:46

Well, are you sure about that?

0:27:480:27:50

It's partly an emotional thing, because there is no doubt that

0:27:510:27:54

as the foetus grows, it becomes less like a ball of cells

0:27:540:27:59

and becomes a baby, becomes a recognisable object

0:27:590:28:04

which looks just like a baby.

0:28:040:28:06

And once you start to see foetal movements,

0:28:060:28:08

it feels more of a cruel procedure and, depending on how it's done,

0:28:080:28:15

it's also an unpleasant procedure.

0:28:150:28:18

So dilatation and evacuation, when you're pulling out bits of

0:28:180:28:21

foetuses is extremely unpleasant.

0:28:210:28:24

So people automatically, I think, react by saying,

0:28:240:28:28

"Well, I think I'll stop at 12 weeks."

0:28:280:28:30

As we know, abortion law allows us to abort to 24 weeks

0:28:300:28:35

and sometimes even later.

0:28:350:28:37

But I don't think there's a sudden cut-off that you can say that

0:28:370:28:40

this is... This is a foetus that

0:28:400:28:43

doesn't have rights, and then it suddenly becomes a foetus

0:28:430:28:46

that does have rights. And I guess my cut-off is at implantation,

0:28:460:28:51

because that's very clear to me that life has begun at that point.

0:28:510:28:54

But then I think you have to say, "Well, who are the women

0:28:560:29:01

"who are having abortions beyond 12 weeks?"

0:29:010:29:05

And, to me, those women are often less able to get their lives

0:29:050:29:11

into control, and particularly the very late terminations,

0:29:110:29:15

often the very young or the very old, in reproductive terms,

0:29:150:29:20

who have taken a long time to recognise that they are pregnant

0:29:200:29:23

or who have problems with mental health or something else.

0:29:230:29:26

So, to me, if you're going to do abortions, then I think you have to

0:29:270:29:33

say, "Well, why am I doing them?"

0:29:330:29:35

If it is to make life better for those who have

0:29:370:29:40

unintended pregnancies, then I don't see the logic

0:29:400:29:44

in having a time limit.

0:29:440:29:46

Saturday.

0:29:590:30:01

7:45am.

0:30:020:30:03

She wakes up, splashes cold water on her face and takes out

0:30:050:30:10

the piece of paper that's been burning a hole in her pocket

0:30:100:30:14

for the past three days.

0:30:140:30:16

So...

0:30:190:30:20

..she steps on the bus.

0:30:220:30:23

The 427 headed out of town.

0:30:250:30:27

Shades on, eyes ahead, shoulders back.

0:30:300:30:33

The eyes of the kid on the bus lock with hers.

0:30:360:30:39

An old woman smiles.

0:30:390:30:41

Disengage, headphones on, chin up, shoulders back.

0:30:410:30:46

And her hand slowly falls and rests subconsciously on her belly.

0:30:490:30:55

And I gently nod my head to the beat of the music.

0:30:550:30:57

And the beat goes on.

0:30:590:31:01

Bus brakes hard.

0:31:050:31:07

Her white and gold Adidas shoes step off the bus

0:31:070:31:11

into the heat and the dust of the midday sun.

0:31:110:31:14

The eyes of the street vendors burn a hole in her back.

0:31:150:31:18

Chin up.

0:31:200:31:21

She looks defiantly on the door...

0:31:230:31:25

..and waits for what seems to be forever and a day.

0:31:270:31:30

Until an old woman answers.

0:31:330:31:35

And says...

0:31:370:31:39

"Come this way."

0:31:390:31:42

The room is dark.

0:32:030:32:05

Like a womb.

0:32:070:32:08

Bed on the floor.

0:32:100:32:11

Shiny metal on the table.

0:32:120:32:14

Hips in the bowl.

0:32:160:32:18

She lies down and waits.

0:32:200:32:23

She closes her eyes and she waits.

0:32:240:32:27

And she waits.

0:32:290:32:30

And the beat goes on.

0:32:330:32:35

Beat, beat, beat, beat.

0:32:370:32:42

Tick, tick, tick.

0:32:420:32:46

I remember having, like, butterflies in my stomach

0:32:460:32:50

and just waking my mum up to talk to her about it.

0:32:500:32:54

And then I remember being on the plane and just thinking,

0:32:540:32:56

"I don't think I can do this."

0:32:560:32:58

And my mum says, "It's your choice, you know, we can just take

0:32:580:33:01

"the money and go shopping", cos she wanted to go shopping.

0:33:010:33:04

But on the plane then, I thought, "No, I'm doing it.

0:33:040:33:07

"I need to do it and I want to do it."

0:33:070:33:09

But right up until the door, she was like, "You know, it's your choice,

0:33:090:33:13

"it's your call."

0:33:130:33:14

Have you been to that abortion clinic on Aigburth?

0:33:140:33:17

Well, it's just like a big house.

0:33:170:33:19

It's literally on a street and it was just like a dead big house.

0:33:190:33:23

And then we landed in Liverpool and we got the taxi to the

0:33:230:33:28

Merseyside Clinic, and it was just like a house type thing.

0:33:280:33:32

So we went in, our Shana was with me, and we were in the waiting room

0:33:320:33:36

and it was just, like, loads of people in there.

0:33:360:33:39

I remember seeing an old Indian woman who was just smiling,

0:33:390:33:42

like the whole time.

0:33:420:33:45

Just... It's weird also to see another Asian person

0:33:450:33:48

having an abortion.

0:33:480:33:50

There was a girl in there that I'd went to

0:33:500:33:51

school with and she was with her mum, but I don't know whether

0:33:510:33:54

she was getting the abortion or her mum, because they both looked

0:33:540:33:57

dead sad. But I just said hi to her and just sat down.

0:33:570:34:01

I was like, "This is just not what I was expecting."

0:34:010:34:04

Like, they had piles of magazines, little thingy water machines

0:34:040:34:08

and tellies all round the room, and Jeremy Kyle was on.

0:34:080:34:11

And everyone was just like getting on with what they were doing.

0:34:110:34:14

They brought me into the room and... Of course, me and my mum,

0:34:250:34:28

whenever she comes to hospital appointments, she doesn't leave.

0:34:280:34:31

So she thought that she came with me, but they put her out and

0:34:310:34:34

spoke to me. They asked if I did the scan and they asked

0:34:340:34:38

if I wanted to have a picture of the scan.

0:34:380:34:41

I was like, "No, I don't even want to look at it, just do whatever

0:34:410:34:43

"you have to do." And until the very point, you know, you're like

0:34:430:34:47

taking your clothes off and getting changed, you're sort of still

0:34:470:34:51

thinking, like you have that in the back of your head, like,

0:34:510:34:53

"Is this right?"

0:34:530:34:55

And then I went upstairs and got undressed into, like, a nightie,

0:34:550:34:59

lay on the bed and they put like a cream on your hand and that was it.

0:34:590:35:04

I woke up and I was like, "Is that it?"

0:35:040:35:06

And they were like, "Yeah, that's it, it's done."

0:35:060:35:08

And I was like, "Where's my mum?"

0:35:080:35:10

And my mum came up and she just gave me a hug and that was it.

0:35:100:35:14

My friend actually has a picture of hers, so she does.

0:35:190:35:23

She just keeps it. I don't know what she does with it.

0:35:230:35:26

She looks at it like, but, yeah, she has.

0:35:260:35:30

I was just like, I don't even want... Just turn the screen,

0:35:300:35:33

and they did, so...

0:35:330:35:34

You go on the Saturday, you take the tablet,

0:35:350:35:38

go home and then you come back on the Sunday

0:35:380:35:41

and take two more tablets,

0:35:410:35:43

and that breaks the pregnancy away from your womb and your...

0:35:430:35:48

Like, it comes out, which was a bit horrible.

0:35:480:35:50

But it wasn't anything, it was literally, like, a blood clot,

0:35:500:35:56

like the size of a conker, if that, do you know what I mean?

0:35:560:35:59

You had like...

0:35:590:36:00

You were in a room and you had, like, a back room attached

0:36:020:36:04

to the side and they give you this like...

0:36:040:36:09

What are they called? You know those green trays what they give

0:36:100:36:13

the old women to wee in and stuff in the ozzy?

0:36:130:36:17

One of them. And every time you go for a wee, unless you were going

0:36:170:36:20

to have a poo, you wouldn't use it. But if you were going for a wee,

0:36:200:36:23

you had to put that in like the hole of the toilet and wee in that

0:36:230:36:27

because they need to check it so they know when the baby had

0:36:270:36:33

come out, when the foetus had come out.

0:36:330:36:35

So they give you like loads of sheets of brown paper

0:36:350:36:38

and they say to you, "Don't ever look in the tray.

0:36:380:36:40

"Just put the paper over and pull the..."

0:36:400:36:43

You had like a little red lever, pull that,

0:36:430:36:45

and every time you wee, they come and took the tray away.

0:36:450:36:48

And then, eventually, they come in and go, "You've just passed it."

0:36:480:36:50

After the abortion, I got picked up by my boyfriend's cousin

0:37:100:37:15

and I really wanted a koobideh kebab from Rusholme chippy.

0:37:150:37:19

So we got me a koobideh kebab

0:37:190:37:21

and then we went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean in the cinema,

0:37:210:37:23

and I fell asleep.

0:37:230:37:26

When I went home, I was in agony, because after that,

0:37:260:37:29

you have a dead, dead heavy period.

0:37:290:37:31

But I was just thinking...

0:37:310:37:33

SHE SIGHS

0:37:330:37:34

But then I was thinking, "I can't even feel sorry for myself."

0:37:340:37:37

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

0:37:370:37:40

So I was like, "I can move on from here."

0:37:400:37:43

But it wasn't my fault, I was on contraception,

0:37:430:37:47

and I was only young and, you know, you don't read the leaflet

0:37:470:37:50

and what comes with your pill and all the rest of it,

0:37:500:37:52

and there was loads of things on the list

0:37:520:37:54

what cancelled your pill out.

0:37:540:37:56

And I'd definitely been taking it religiously.

0:37:560:37:59

But maybe I'm just on antibiotics, or whatever the thing was,

0:37:590:38:03

so I was just like, "It wasn't really my fault, I did think

0:38:030:38:06

"I was covered." So...

0:38:060:38:08

I don't know how I kind of stopped crying, but, yeah, I did.

0:38:080:38:14

And then as it went on, I kind of felt a wee bit gutted...

0:38:150:38:19

..or guilty.

0:38:190:38:20

I was having dreams and stuff and seeing the actual child,

0:38:200:38:24

and I can still the child today, actually,

0:38:240:38:26

the image of this child that I was going to have.

0:38:260:38:29

But then, looking at my life now, I know it was the right thing

0:38:290:38:33

-that I did.

-I am religious.

0:38:330:38:36

I'll always say that I don't think that I made the wrong decision,

0:38:360:38:41

like from a Muslim perspective, because why would my god

0:38:410:38:47

want me to suffer? Why would my god want my unborn child to suffer?

0:38:470:38:52

It's not... You know, it's not what anyone wants.

0:38:520:38:56

I 100% made the right decisions about the abortions,

0:38:560:38:59

but with Paitlyn, this sounds terrible,

0:38:590:39:02

but sometimes I look at her and I love her to bits,

0:39:020:39:05

but I do always ponder where I might be

0:39:050:39:07

if I had not gone through with that pregnancy either.

0:39:070:39:10

Not that I'm...

0:39:100:39:12

Well, not that my life's not good now and I wouldn't change it,

0:39:120:39:15

but, you know, it is hard.

0:39:150:39:18

Especially now I'm a single parent and I've lost my house

0:39:180:39:21

and everything. Well, yeah, I do think about it, about that

0:39:210:39:24

decision, all the time.

0:39:240:39:26

Oh, my God, my friend, Terrence, has just told me what happened

0:39:390:39:41

to his cousin in Africa.

0:39:410:39:43

So, the girl had been seeing this guy for a while,

0:39:430:39:45

but it had all been a secret, so they didn't even know

0:39:450:39:48

she had a partner, let alone was sexually active.

0:39:480:39:52

So then she'd got caught pregnant and the abortion what she got,

0:39:520:39:56

it wasn't in like a...

0:39:560:39:58

It wasn't even in a clinic, it was like literally like a room

0:39:580:40:03

and the woman done it like old school, like the way on...

0:40:030:40:06

What's that movie of the woman...?

0:40:060:40:08

Like, Vera Drake, it was like that.

0:40:080:40:11

And she'd gone back to the woman twice, because the first time

0:40:110:40:15

she'd done it and when the girl went home, still no bleeding

0:40:150:40:19

or nothing. Done a pregnancy test and she was still pregnant.

0:40:190:40:22

And then woman had said to her, "No, that can happen.

0:40:320:40:35

"It can still come up that you're pregnant, but you won't be.

0:40:350:40:37

"But I'll do it again if you're not sure, but you'll have to pay again,

0:40:370:40:42

"cos my time's not free."

0:40:420:40:44

So she's paid again, got it again,

0:40:440:40:47

and then went home and she was bleeding then.

0:40:470:40:49

And she was just like, "It's just my period," and whatever,

0:40:490:40:52

and then she was haemorrhaging.

0:40:520:40:54

So then her mum and dad were a bit like, "Well, what's going on

0:40:540:40:56

"with you?" And she come clean to them.

0:40:560:40:59

Now, the dad has like kicked off, but obviously the mum was like,

0:40:590:41:03

"Her safety's paramount at this minute,

0:41:030:41:05

"we'll deal with what she's done when we get back."

0:41:050:41:08

And they've took her to the hospital, but she died.

0:41:080:41:11

She had septicaemia.

0:41:110:41:13

She was only 21.

0:41:130:41:14

But they're really, really, really, really, really, really old-school,

0:41:240:41:28

like, traditional, and they buried her the next day in a wooden box,

0:41:280:41:32

didn't even have a proper ceremony or whatever.

0:41:320:41:35

Because obviously they can't say she's died because she's had

0:41:350:41:39

a backstreet abortion. So, from that, everything's had to

0:41:390:41:42

stay hidden.

0:41:420:41:44

It's just the shame, Terrence calls it.

0:41:440:41:47

But I wouldn't call it shame.

0:41:470:41:49

LEAH: Do you know what? I would love to get involved in something

0:42:270:42:30

to get help for women over here.

0:42:300:42:31

-PAIGE:

-I just feel liberated and I can't believe how many people

0:42:340:42:39

want to hear these stories.

0:42:390:42:41

-TANAYA:

-I really want to tell my nieces and nephews,

0:42:430:42:47

because if they ever got into that situation, they would have someone.

0:42:470:42:52

You know, so that they don't feel alone.

0:42:520:42:54

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