Northern Ireland

Woman defends reporting housemate to police for buying abortion drugs

A 21-year old woman, who cannot be named due to a court order, bought two types of abortion pills online
A 21-year old woman, who cannot be named due to a court order, bought two types of abortion pills online A 21-year old woman, who cannot be named due to a court order, bought two types of abortion pills online

A WOMAN who reported her housemate to police after she bought drugs online to terminate her pregnancy has described how she found the foetus in a household bin.

The 38-year-old said she contacted police over the guilt she felt after discovering the "fully formed baby".

Her 21-year-old flatmate miscarried a male foetus, aged between 10 and 12 weeks, after taking two types of abortion pills she bought on the internet in 2014.

The woman, who cannot be named due to a court order, pleaded guilty to two offences under Northern Ireland's strict abortion laws.

She was given a three-month jail sentence on Monday, but suspended for one year.

Her housemate has described how she tried to persuade the woman, who was 19 at the time, to seek help after she told them she was pregnant and could not afford to travel to England for an abortion.

She also claimed she offered to be legal guardian to the child if she still did not want the baby after giving birth.

But she said the woman kept describing the baby as "the pest" and "just wanted to get rid of it".

"I really tried to help her. I talked through a number of options but she just didn't want to know," she told The Belfast Telegraph.

"She said she was going to order these pills online. I tried to talk her out of it.

"She didn't tell us they had arrived. The first I knew that she had taken them was on the Friday night when she said she was getting awful cramps."

The housemate added: "The next day I was downstairs on my own and she phoned me from her bedroom and asked me if I could bring her a pair of scissors. I wasn't thinking straight.

"I went upstairs with them. She was lying in bed and I asked what she wanted them for. She said 'This is hanging out of me on a piece of string'."

The woman said hours later the teenager "came down carrying a plastic bag".

"A bit later I was going to put rubbish out in the bin and there was the bag," she said.

"When my other housemate came home on the Sunday we went and looked in the bag in the bin. There was the baby on a towel. I didn't expect the baby to be so fully formed.

"The court was told she was 10 to 12 weeks pregnant when she obtained the tablets, but he seemed older. He had fingers, little toes. Even now I just have a picture in my mind of it.

"Its wee foot was perfect. Even now I feel sick. It has done so much damage to me mentally. It is something I can't get out of my head.

"On bin collection day I couldn't bring myself to put the bin out for collection. I didn't want to throw a baby away. I didn't know what to do."

She claimed the foetus was left in a household bin for eight days before police were contacted.

"This isn't anything to do with the rights and wrongs of abortion," she said.

"I'm not anti-abortion. I believe there are circumstances, like rape, where it should be a woman's choice.

"This is about her attitude. It was as if she was getting rid of a piece of clothing.

"There was absolutely no remorse. Even the way she was up and away out and doing her own thing a day after the abortion, while me and our other house-mate just walked around in shock."

The two housemates have been abused online over their decision to contact police.

The second housemate, aged 22, said it was "insane the way we are being portrayed as being the bad ones in this".

"The abuse we are getting is just awful," she said.

"People are accusing us of having no compassion for not getting her help. But she begged and pleaded with us not to tell anyone."

She added: "The way this was done was wrong. The baby had hands, feet, all its facial features, its little nose.

"I can't stop thinking that it might have been alive when it was born. It is awful."