My story

I had an abortion at 6/7 weeks along and had the abortion pill. I was 19 at the time and not sure I really made the right decision (I turned 20 a few days ago).  I had the abortion under the 'care' of Marie Stopes International.  From the beginning I wasn't really sure about the medical abortion, but I looked up multiple stories from women online and also information from the NHS and Marie Stopes. It all seemed like an easy and safe enough process.  I do feel like I was pressured into my decision because I only had two more weeks untill I wouldn't be able to take the pill and I definetely wasn't going to have the surgical abortion. I now feel I didn't really explore any other options (such as how I would support a child etc) and just bought into the bullshit about how children ruin your life. I thought about the shame of being a young mother, but I also thought about the shame of having an abortion. I thought pregnancy and childbirth would take a huge toll on my body. The truth is the abortion took a much much bigger roll.   From the outset I was unimpressed with Marie Stopes. At my first consultation I wasn't sure about my decision and told them I needed more time to think about it. They didn't ask me for any medical history, offered no counselling or real information about the impact abortion would have on my life, offered no alternatives to look into. They simply told me if I wanted to go ahead with it then give them a call. I decided I would have a medical abortion at 8 weeks. I wasn't really thinking straight anyway because of all the pregnancy hormones and I felt I had very little support. I thought having an abortion would solve the 'problem'. I ultimately felt like I was having it to please everyone around me, not because I actually wanted to. If I'd had support and more information I'm sure this would have been a very different story. The abortion went horribly wrong. I took the first set of pills and threw up and felt really ill, I called the advice line multiple times but they told me there was nothing to worry about. The next day I threw up again on the way to get the second dose of tablets and felt extremely tired and generally ill. I asked the lady if it was a good idea to take them considering how bad I felt but she assured me I'd be fine. I was given four tablets to dissolve in my mouth and sent home. I threw up as soon as I got home and the tablets weren't fully dissolved so I called the helpline and was told thst it was fine because the tablets dissolve into the blood stream. I was then in moderate pain for a few hours and bled a bit but not as much as I thought I would so I called the helpline and was once again assured it was fine. I assumed the abortion was complete. Two weeks after this I had pain in my stomach and suddenly started bleeding everywhere, it was a steady stream of blood and I was soaking a pad a minute bleeding buckets. I soaked my boyfriends mattress completely and thought I was dying. I went to the emergency room where I fainted and continued bleeding for hours. I was hooked up to a drip and they were considering a blood transfusion. I bled for about 5/6 hours extremely heavily and lost 30% of my blood. I then passed the actual pregnancy which had rotted inside of me for two weeks which was extremely traumatic. I was then told I had an infection because of this and put on antibiotics. I was also told I'd developed anaemia because of the amount of blood lost which I still have now. I think I am also suffering from PTSD after this event and have been very depressed. I called the advice line with every concern I had but was always dismissed and told it was fine. I was also never warned anything remotely close to this situation was even possible. I strongly feel they need to be held accountable for their medical negligence so that this doesn't happen to anyone else.  The medicine given is not even approved for abortion in the UK. Marie Stopes does not care about you,  the abortion industry does not care about you or your 'right to choose'. All they care about is money. Injury from abortion is not rare, it's just that cover ups are common. Women have died from this, and if the a&e I went to hadn't acted so quickly I would have as well.  Please educate yourselves and don't make the same mistake I did