By Dave Andrusko
Hazel Wiggins was told to induce labor because medics believed Amelia had died 11 weeks into the pregnancy.
The British newspaper The Daily Mail often publishes incredibly moving stories about abortion. Often they are very grim: boyfriends fooling women into taking abortifacients and babies left behind in dumpsters, for example.
On other occasions, the paper does first-rate investigative reporting. Without the uncover work of Daily Telegraph, you could not say definitively that there are abortionists in England who will abort a child because the mother says she does not want a girl. Or that that 66 babies survived abortion attempts in one year alone.
Other times, The Daily Mail runs stories of mothers who refused to heed the “advice” of doctors to abort a child found to have a malady. Or even mothers who risked all to give their unborn children a chance to be born.
And then there are stories like the two that ran today that run the full gamut. The first was the cautionary tale of Hazel Wiggins.
Back in August, Wiggins, 36, was in her 11th week of pregnancy and unexpectedly had heavy bleeding. She told reporter Emma Innes
The midwife looked at my scan for 30 seconds and then said “I’m sorry, there is no heartbeat,” and turned the machine off.
‘I said “Are you sure? You didn’t look at my stomach for very long,” and she said, “Yes, I’m 100 per cent sure”.’
She added: ‘It is the most heart-breaking thing someone can say to you.
‘I went home and just got into bed and mourned the death of the baby.’
She cried the whole day and night.
A few days later she was back to take a series of pills to induce delivery of her dead baby (called “abortion pills” in the story).
But something told her….her baby wasn’t dead. Innes explains what Wiggins told her:
‘They kept saying that I needed to take the tablets and I said that I didn’t want to.’
‘I told them I wanted another scan. It went on for about 20 minutes.’
Eventually, she persuaded midwives to carry out another scan.
‘I was telling the lady who was scanning me about what had happened when she stopped and looked at me, shocked,” said Mrs Wiggins.
‘She said, “I have a baby here who is jumping all over the place, the baby is alive”. … Amelia [the name she gave her daughter at birth] looked like she was saying to me ‘Mum, please don’t take the tablets, I’m alive.’’’
Sure enough, Amelia, dubbed a ‘proper little fighter,’ was born at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary January 13.
The hospital apologized to Mrs. Wiggins and changed procedures, according to Innes. When a mother receives a scan which shows her baby has died, she will be automatically offered a second scan to make absolutely sure.
At the other end of the spectrum, a very, very sad story also in today’s Daily Mail. According to Wills Robinson
“A grieving mother claims her pregnant daughter accidentally killed herself in a ‘moment of madness’ after her boyfriend ended their relationship because she refused to have an abortion.
“Cassie Turton from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, took an overdose of over-the-counter medicine hours after partner, Michael Fysh, finished their seven-month romance.
“The 26-year-old restaurant supervisor wanted to start a family, despite suffering from Marfan syndrome, a genetic condition that increases risks during pregnancy.
“After telling her partner she wanted to keep the baby, she slashed her wrists and then sent images of what she had done to his phone in a cry for help.”
According to Robinson, Fysh forwarded the pictures to Miss Turton’s mother, Sandra Hammond-Grant, who immediately rushed to her flat and found her being helped by a neighbor. When Fysh showed up, there was a tremendous row and he left. Turton’s condition worsened, her mother drove her to the hospital, but she died in what the autopsy concluded was an overdose.
Robinson wrote
“Mrs. Hammond-Grant, 50, said her daughter was delighted to be pregnant and refuses to believe she meant to kill herself.
“’She had always dreamed of finding her perfect man and then having a happy baby. It’s all gone so tragically wrong,’ she said. …’She had talked about leaving him but didn’t want to kill the baby or raise it alone, so felt trapped.’”
For this part, Turton’s brother told Robinson
“If you narrow it all down, it was either ‘You kill the baby or I’m not going to be with you.’ That’s how blunt it was. No one should ever be in that position.’”
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