Gemma is 28, British, and recovering from an abortion she had just over a month ago. She was far enough along—a few days shy of five months—that she had to be admitted to the hospital. She would have preferred to end the pregnancy earlier—but she didn’t know about it, even after getting checked out by a doctor after suffering from fatigue.
“I was still having periods. I wasn’t gaining weight. I was going to the doctor and getting blood tests, and nobody ever told me I was pregnant,” she told me.
When she finally took a pregnancy test and found out, she decided an abortion was her best option. “I had only been in a relationship with the father for three months. I knew it wouldn’t survive something like this,” she said. In Great Britain, abortion is legal up to six months into a pregnancy, with the approval of two doctors (or after six months if the woman is at risk of grave injury or death, or the child is at risk of being seriously handicapped.)
Gemma wasn’t nervous. She knew what to expect physically, which medication would help with the pain afterward, and roughly what it would feel like psychologically. This was, after all, her third abortion in as many years.
When I asked Gemma whether she was unusual among her friends, she paused. “I wouldn’t say they’ve all had multiple,” she said. “But they’ve definitely all had one.”
