By Dave Andrusko
The British tabloid, The Mirror, matter of factly says it will pay for stories, and brags that it “pays the highest rates in the industry.” I mention that because I cannot understand any other reason why the mother of five would tell Jenny Francis & Sam Brick the story of how she aborted her sixth baby for fear she wouldn’t be able to “get my career back on track.”
What’s the career for which she ended her unborn baby’s life? She’s a “birth coach.” You can’t make this stuff up.
The hook for the story is something we are very familiar with in the United States:
Abortions are often considered to be the actions of troubled teenage girls, but figures show more terminations were performed on women approaching middle age last year, typically at around 35 years old.
The study from the Department of Health also showed more than half of all abortions in England and Wales were carried out for women who said that they live with a partner in a cohabiting relationship.
The story of Sarah Holdway and Mark Holdway is not only tragic, but hard to fathom. They always wanted a large family, she told The Mirror, but they kind of agreed five was enough. According to reporters Francis and Brick
We never discussed how many we wanted exactly but five seemed a good place to stop.
I found out I was pregnant again with number six in spring last year, and it was totally unplanned.
At first I thought, that’s great. What’s one more in the mix? But then reality kicked in.
We live in a three-bedroom house and are saving up for a bigger place so the children can have more space.
She’s telling us the reason was a two-sided coin: the desire to “have her career back” and to contribute to her household’s income. But why couldn’t she resume her career?
By the time this new baby was old enough, it would have been five years since I last had a job. So I knew it could mean never going back to work.
Five weeks pregnant, Holdway, 35, had a chemical abortion at the equivalent of Planned Parenthood in England, a Marie Stopes clinic.
I was given medication and took it at night when the kids were asleep.
The cramping was awful but it over quite quickly. It wasn’t an easy choice but I don’t regret it.
Maybe it’s just me but the mental picture of Holdway aborting her children’s sibling at home mere feet from where they were sleeping makes me almost ill.
Holdway says it wasn’t an easy choice, but she had no regrets. “I know it was the right decision for my family,” she told The Mirror.
It wasn’t the right decision for at least one member of the family. I wonder if ending her unborn child’s life will affect how she experiences her career as a “birth coach.”