These strong words resonate with many Breton women. Like Kris (1), already the mother of two children born by assisted reproduction when she was forced to abort. “This pregnancy was not compatible with my state of health,” she explains. In January 2012, with her husband, they made this choice. “It was heartbreaking…” she insists, “given that these two children – they were twins – arrived without treatment”. And the abortion itself turns out to be laborious: “I took pills, but it didn’t work. So, 15 days later, I had to undergo curettage. » A painful episode which will be the cause of “depression”. “And, every year, in July, I think of my babies: they should be 12 years old…” she confides.
“The greatest trauma of my life”
Marion also describes “the greatest trauma of my life”. In 2022, she discovers that she is pregnant. “It wasn’t planned,” she explains. “We already had two children aged 5 and 7. My husband did not want this third pregnancy, I respected his choice. » Hence this abortion, during which she “felt like she was killing her baby”. However, she does not regret this decision: “The four of us have a great family balance. » And, last year, her husband underwent a vasectomy (2) “so that I would no longer have to carry the weight and consequences of unsafe contraception alone”.
“I went through this stage alone”
Almost similar situation for Angelina, whose ex-partner “absolutely did not want other children”. “I went through this stage alone. It’s very difficult to forget,” she says. Marie also felt helpless in the face of “pressure” from her family and the father of her child. An abortion that took her “20 years to digest”. For Nouh, “it was complicated to get started”. But, seven years after having an abortion, she is convinced, it was “the right decision”.
At 17, you're not ready to become a mother
If Leila, then a high school student, made this choice, it was clearly because of her age. “At 17, you are not ready to become a mother,” she says. She discovered her pregnancy “relatively late, just two weeks before the legal abortion deadline”. But what she especially deplores is the behavior of the gynecologist who saw her. “He was openly against abortion. He made me listen to the baby's heartbeat, even though I had asked him not to. I'm traumatized by it. When I fall asleep, I still hear them. »
For Pauline too, this child was a “surprise”. “I already had two and I was separated from their father. I was not able to welcome him properly. My first two were still too small and my financial situation unstable,” she emphasizes. Co-author of “Sociology of Abortion”, Marie Mathieu says it: “Women are not irresponsible. » If they choose abortion, it is by thinking above all “of the well-being of a potential child”.
1. Kris, like all our interlocutors, responded to our call for testimonies.
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