Posted on 10/10/2002 9:03:41 AM PDT by Bush2000
Woman left to discover jar containing her baby
A WOMAN who had an abortion was stunned to find the foetus left in a jar after a hospital blunder. Nicola McManus made the horrific discovery when she was left in a room to answer a phone call from her husband. The jar was labelled with her name.
She said: "I fell apart. I couldn't believe anyone could be careless enough just to leave it lying there. That image will live with me forever."
Mum-of-three Nicola, 27, received a a full apology from the hospital but plans to sue North Glasgow NHS Trust, claiming the handling of the abortion left her psychologically scarred.
She took the RU486 abortion pill, which requires no surgery and is supposed to make terminations easier.
However, she said it no quick fix and she was offered no counselling by Glasgow's Stobhill Hospital.
She said: "They explained the procedure and got me to sign some forms. But no one actually sat down and asked me if this was what I really wanted to do.
"I was struggling to get my head around it. They made me feel just like a number."
Nicola, from Lennoxtown, near Glasgow, was nine weeks pregnant when she had the abortion in August.
She and husband Frank, 26, who is epileptic, decided a fourth child would be too much to cope with.
Nicola's eldest son, Nathan, six, has behavioural problems and demands a large chunk of her time, as do Aiden, four, and baby Bethany.
The abortion pill works by causing a miscarriage. Nicola lay for hours in the ward waiting for it to take effect, then felt intense pain.
She said: "I wanted Frank to hold my hand but was told he could only stay during visiting hours. I was in a lot of pain and felt so alone."
Then, said Nicola: "They gave me a bed pan to take to the loo and something to cover it up. Eventually, I felt it happen. I was really upset. I've never felt so low."
She was relieved when Frank phoned to find out how she was.
Nurses showed her in to a side room to take the call and that's when she saw the jar containing the foetus.
She said: "I was mid-conversation and saw it. I told Frank and he tried to comfort me but I wasn't listening any more. I was crying.
"I was clearly upset when I returned to the ward and the nurses asked what was wrong. How could they not know?"
Nicola filed an official complaint and received an apologetic letter from the trust which said the room was not normally used by patients.
General manager Mary McGinley wrote: "Unfortunately, the products of conception from your termination were in a labelled jar ready to be sent to pathology and awaiting collection.
"The ward sister apologises for the obvious distress this has caused you."
Until now, the abortion pill has only been given in hospitals but family planning clinics and GPs were recently given the go ahead to use them.
Women may even be allowed to take the drug alone at home.
But Nicola fears a lack of medical support could leave some women traumatised.
She said: "Women need more counselling before abortions, not less.
"I will never get over what happened to me."
She and husband Frank, 26, who is epileptic, decided a fourth child would be too much to cope with.
So now, instead, she has to cope with the lifelong guilt of aborting her baby. Some trade. How long would she have had to "cope" with this baby had it lived? Five years, until he or she was ready for school?
I would have sympathy for her if she hadn't just murdered a tiny little human being.
The scary thing is, this woman has three children at home. I wonder how they feel about all this?
The least she could have done is carry the baby to term and give it up for adoption.
You're right - that image will live with you forever. You will spend eternity pondering the enormity of your crime of murdering your own child. I guess you just got a little preview in the hospital.
Quite right. They should have put her in the trash compactor like usual.
No sympathy here. She should be haunted forever by the unspeakable crime to which she was a willing party.
"the products of conception" - read "BABY"
"the products of conception from your termination" - read "MURDERED BABY"
I am beginning to think that we need to go after the HEARTS of the first abortion "victims"---the abortion mothers. I believe that most don't REALLY KNOW what the pre-aborted BABY looks like---or that it REALLY IS a baby. After all, they have been told for YEARS that it's "just a mass of tissue."
I think we need to DEMAND that state legislatures make laws REQUIRING that ALL pre-abortion mothers be shown (and initial) UNDENIABLE, FACTUAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE of post-abortion BABIES (CLEARLY showing hands, feet, bodies, etc.)---BEFORE their OWN abortion---and then let them make their own decision. I think most would change their HEARTS and minds FOREVER.
In 1974, I was VERY pro-ABORTION. Then, I had to do a simulated radio broadcast on a controversial topic, and I chose abortion. I thought it would be a piece of cake...I would put those "right-wing-religious-nuts" to SHAME!
We had to present BOTH sides fairly and were NOT allowed to be biased in our presentation. (You know, like journalists are SUPPOSED to do!)
I KNEW the abortion argument---I had been PRO-ABORTION all my life. But after forcing myself to see the "other side," I realized how 100% WRONG I had been. I did a 180 and became PRO-LIFE over night and have remained so ever since!
I have VERY seriously been considering running for office. If I do, I will fight for a "Women's Right to KNOW"...what an abortion REALLY does and what that CHILD REALLY looked like...It INSTANTLY changed MY mind 100%---FOREVER!
ALL abortions are pathetic!
But was there EVER a time when YOU didn't know what an abortion REALLY did? There was for me. (See #13 on http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/766626/posts?page=12#12)
I thought---just as the pro-aborts say---that it was "just a mass of tissue."
It was not until I *** SAW *** what that alleged "mass of tissue" REALLY looked like, that I UNDERSTOOD that there REALLY IS A BABY there.
Blame the MONEY-GRABBING ABORTION DOCTORS and NURSES. THEY KNOW that they are KILLING BABIES---and don't care!
I believe that many of the abortion "mothers" REALLY DON'T KNOW---but they SHOULD BE TOLD the TRUTH and SHOWN the TRUTH!
Change their HEARTS, then we can change Roe v Wade and the STATE laws.
I totally disagree. I would no more show abortion pictures to a woman about to have one than I would show pictures of any kind of surgery to someone about to undergo it.
Why wouldn't pictures of fetal development suffice?
The law requires more truth and disclosure over buying a share of stock than over the life and death decision of abortion. To refer to her aborted baby as the"products of conception from your termination" is grotesque.
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