Swazi woman's abortion account #1

"I am a 33 year old Swazi woman and I had an abortion 12 years ago.

I remember the first time I suspected that I was pregnant. I was finding hard to wake up in the morning and even harder to keep my eyes open after lunch. A friend suggested I do a pregnancy test. I was so young (21) and scared of being judged. So I decided to have a blood test done at the clinic. The doctor that attended to me was a good friend of mine, so that made things easier. He to a blood sample and carried out an HIV test as well.

I went back a few days letter to get the results; negative for HIV and positive for bun in the oven. That was the scariest exciting news I’d ever had. The next bit was telling the father of the baby that I was expecting a baby. We agreed to meet and when I told him I was pregnant, he immediately announced that I had to get rid of “it”. We argued about it, I even told him not to call me any more.

How foolish I was to think I could wish someone away and feel nothing when I next saw him again. He came by and tried to “reason” with me. The sad thing is everything he said seemed to make sense. I was planning to leave for Europe at the end of that year and a baby would not make that possible. He was not ready to have a baby and I had my future to build.

I eventually gave in to pressure and we drove to a Marie Stopes International Clinic in South Africa to have the abortion done. I remember talking with the father of the baby; he asked me why I wanted to keep the baby. I told him that “it” was a part of me and him put together to make a beautiful gift.

I remember walking into the room for the procedure to be done. I’d been given medication to take to “open” the cervix. When I walked in to the room, I was internally horrified to see that the doctor carrying out the procedure was a scary looking man with tribal scars on his face. The nurse at his side, glared at me as I climbed onto the bed. Next to the bed was a bucket. I was told to relax while the doctor did what he needed to do. The first pain I felt was when the suction tool was inserted into to me. It was as if someone was tearing into my flesh. The next pain was when he started to jab it (the suction tool) in and out of my womb. I thought the pain would never end. I wanted to scream, but the lady in the room next to mine was already screaming for both of us. It felt like it would never end. I can still hear the noise the machine makes when it sucks out your unborn child. I was 9 weeks pregnant; the baby would have been born in April 2000.

I walked out of there feeling so sad; it’s a sadness I have never ever been able to get over. Today I have two beautiful children. The eldest alive child was born in July and the last born in April - 11 years after that horrible abortion. I have learnt that I would have been better off having the baby than having the endless heart ache. The smell of the clinic never leaves your nostrils. The sounds never leave your mind. It’s a road I would NEVER recommend anyone to go through. I have prayed for forgiveness and know that God has forgiven me. But I am still struggling with the idea of forgiving myself. No one should wear the shoes I walk in daily."

(published in The Swazi Observer, 23rd January 2013)

This true account is the first I've been able to collect from sources. I have left her words unedited, to better preserve her unique voice. Thank you to Aunty A, and her brave beautiful client who spoke up about this terrible experience. I desperately hope that other women and girls would be encouraged to seek godly counselling and find real healing and peace from a life-long hurt.

Love, Ruth xx

Understanding Prenatal Development

At the moment of conception every aspect of the genetic inheritance for a new individual will be determined once and for all: to be a boy or girl, with brown or blue eyes, light or dark, tall or short; all the rich physical details from head to toes. A new and unique human being comes into existence with its own distinct genetic code.

In order to better understand why it is such a lie to argue that abortion is the mere removal of cell tissue, consider this timeline of prenatal development:

By week 3 of pregnancy, at just 21 days after conception, the heart starts beating! Over the next 4 days, the heart will settle into its regular rhythm and will start pumping blood throughout newly formed blood vessels. It will have beat roughly 54 million times before the baby is even born. Brain and spine are present and organs are preparing to function, eyes become visible on scans. Week 4: arms and legs are shaped. Day 31, hand formation begins. Day 33, the feet begin taking shape.

By week 6 and 2 days from conception, early brain waves are measurable. Bone hardening has begun, lips have appeared, and all 20 baby teeth are in the gums. The baby begins to make spontaneous and reflexive movements. He responds to stimulus and is able to feel pain. A touch to the mouth area causes the baby to move his head. Lars Hamberger, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sweden's Gothenburg University notes that, "even this early in pregnancy, the baby is extremely lively, in constant motion, sleeping for only brief periods."

At 7 weeks, hiccups have been observed. Fingers and toes are distinctly separated. Knee joints are present, and the baby develops the ability to smell. Day 49 has been elected to be the final day of the scientifically recorded day-to-day diary of development. On this day, the baby is 7 weeks old and is considered to be essentially complete. 90% of the structures found in an adult human being can be found in this tiny body. From here on, the baby waits for birth, growing in size and weight. 75% of 8-week old babies demonstrate right-handedness.

model of unborn baby at 12 weeks

By week 9 he can yawn, suck his thumb, and scratch his chin. Week 10: Fingernails, toenails and unique fingerprints all appear at this time. Between 16-20 weeks, his body is large enough for the mother to start feeling his kicks. The earliest baby born in South Africa to survive and become a healthy normal child was 20 weeks (5 months)! In Swaziland a baby girl was born at 24 weeks (6 months) and is healthy today. At the end of 9 months the baby initiates labour by stimulating the adrenal cortex to secrete a hormone that induces the mother's uterus to begin contracting. It is the baby who determines when it's time for birth!

There has long been a common misperception that most abortions occur before the baby is recognizably human. Day after day, thousands of aborting women wrongly believe that they're simply eliminating some cell tissue or “blob”. Because general ignorance of prenatal development is so convenient to the abortion industry, it's not hard to guess why Planned Parenthood does so little to accurately educate women. Isn't it the height of injustice to abuse another member of the human community simply because they don't look the way we expect them to? Abortion is not the mere removal of cell tissue; it is the death of living, growing human beings.

(article published in The Swazi Observer, 23rd November 2012)