When you listen to mainstream media tell you that people who are against abortion, or question it, or even have small doubts, are hateful, bigoted or disgusting, remember these women.

Nala

“I knew deep in my heart that abortion was not something I wanted to do. I went to my appointment, my boyfriend came with me. I was pretty sure that at the last minute I would panic and decide to keep my baby. But I was sedated and given pretty powerful pain medication that prevented me from thinking rationally. I don’t remember too much about the procedure. It started before I even realized it. I was supposed to say something at the very last possible moment. That way my boyfriend could at least see I tried. But those powerful meds made me lose the ability to do this.
By the time I’d realized what had happened it was too late to take it back. I didn’t feel the real effects until the next day once the drugs had completely worn off. I was devastated. I still am. I am broken. I don’t know how to cope. Part of me wants to die.
Living without my lovely baby seems like a terrible existence. I don’t know where to go from here. I do know that I will never be the same again” (Nala, Alarmist Gatekeeping: pg. 15)

Jessica

“One of my friends posted something on her facebook about Zoe’s law in New South Wales. She read about how it would stop women being able to have abortions and she kept saying how terrible that was. I read the story of how Zoe’s law came
about and I felt so sad for that mother (that her baby was killed by a drunk driver). She wanted her baby and someone killed it and she can’t get any justice and now people are trying to say that her baby can’t be valued because someone else might
not want theirs?

My friend doesn’t know what I did to my baby. She doesn’t even know I was ever pregnant and I don’t know if I could tell her without also telling her the horrible, horrible truth that I wish women couldn’t have abortions. I wish no woman could ever do it, because if they couldn’t then my baby would be here. I wish people would understand that just because the Zoe’s Law mum wanted her baby doesn’t mean some of us didn’t too.

And that if it wasn’t so damn bloody easy to get one and people didn’t fill your head with so many lies about how bad it would be to be a mother then I would have been one by now. It’s like it’s all
about rights to have an abortion, but what about my rights to know how this would feel? What about my rights to not feel pushed into it? When I rang the abortion clinic, and then rang someone they referred me to talk about how bad I felt they just
kept reminding me it was my decision. I know it was. But I also know it wasn’t. If I didn’t know enough about what might happen… If all those people had shut up and given me a chance to think, then it wouldn’t have been my decision… never!!

All this crap about choice is bullshit. I’m sorry but it is. It’s even worse than that but I don’t think you’ll print it. If you are thinking about having an abortion, then you need to think again. That’s your baby and you can do this. Don’t dare let anyone tell you you’re not good enough, or not strong enough. This is no
way to end up.” (Jessica)

These are just two of the stories published in my book Alarmist Gatekeeping. I have heard literally hundreds of similar stories. It takes huge courage to speak them as these women are marginalised, silenced, ridiculed and abandoned.