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Solidarity with Katie

Katie* is facing trial for ending a pregnancy, and is living with the stress and trauma of an ongoing police investigation into her NHS-prescribed abortion. This is all due to an outdated law from 1861 that makes abortion a criminal offence.

Abortion is healthcare, and should be treated as such. This is why Level Up is campaigning for the outdated 1861 law to be removed, and abortion to be decriminalised. Until we achieve that, the most important thing we can do is show solidarity with women who are still being prosecuted under these archaic laws.

It’s crucial that Katie knows the public are on her side – please share a message of support, and we will pass them onto Katie. 

* Katie is not her real name. 

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messages of solidarity

I write this message of support to you during this difficult time in your life. You have done nothing wrong. You are a woman in a world run by men who want to control us. Stand up and be counted. Raise your head and your voice. You are not alone. We stand with you side by side, shoulder to shoulder and we lift you up. We are your sisters in arms. We are warriors and we will fight on until comwomensense prevails. We rise and we keep on rising. Believe in a better, fairer, safer world where women are honoured for the beautiful creatures we are. Our life. Our choice. Freedom!

Tara

Dear Katie, I’m so sorry to learn about what you experienced and am furious on your behalf that something so unfathomable could happen to you. I spent a night in hospital due to a gynaecological procedure and felt suicidal, so can only imagine how you must have felt. You should have been safe and protected, not punished. I know words from strangers can’t undo the harm done to you, but I hope it brings you some comfort to know that people like me are on your side, sending love and compassion. I will continue to support Level Up’s campaign to decriminalise abortion and hope the legal system sees sense over your treatment (the moral crime is entirely theirs).

Dear Katie* I just wanted to say how sorry I was hear about what you are going through and how you have been treated. It’s only in recent years that I have come to understand the kinds of issues facing women in some of our institutions when they are at their most vulnerable. Women in these situations should be treated with care and compassion and not subjected to what I consider to be institutional abuse. I hope it helps in some small way to know how many people care and are campaigning against the treatment you have received. With love Teresa x

Hi “Katie”, I just want to let you know that you are seen and loved, even by people that you have never met and even though you can’t see us, we stand with you. I know you know that you have done nothing wrong and should never have been made to feel as if you have and to experience the trauma that you have, but I just wanted to reinforce that and also say how sorry I am that this has happened. I have had two abortions and one child so have seen both sides and know that no one gets to make or judge this decision except for you. Abortion is healthcare and what is best for you, is best.

Becca Thomson

Dear Katie, I am so angry and frustrated and sorry that this happened (and is still happening) to you. Abortion is healthcare, responsible abortion-providing dating scans etc- is vital. You were failed by the NHS and the government on your moment of greatest need. I see you, I support you unwaveringly, and while I’m not Christian, I will make a petition to the Old Gods for Justice. Finally- the midwife should be ashamed. Her whole career is supposed to be about supporting and advocating for women, not condemning and judging. I stand shoulder to shoulder with you

Sam B

Dear *Katie, the world is unfair, but you are not alone. We will be with you and not let them take your right to choose. I’ve been through abortion and even though I’ve made my decision before becoming pregnant I was made to feel bad about it by people who don’t know me or my circumstances. I don’t regret doing it I just regret that I didn’t tell the people who I dealt with what I think about their opinion. Your body, your choice. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You got this! We will fight for you! Big hugs xxx Sabine

I am so sorry that ‘Katie’ or any woman suffers such cruel behaviour by NHS and police system. To have to have an abortion is bad enough, without all of this criminalising it. Personally, I have never needed an abortion but have experienced such NHS cruelty when lying on hosp bed miscarrying an early foetus. After the curt nurse said that I had ‘finished bleeding’, she told me that I could ‘go home how’ as i was not pregnant. No kind words ar compassion. I was mid forties and had always very much wanted a baby – I was heart broken – but had to get up and make my way home alone. The pregnancy followed a date rape situation which was horrible but i accepted it (didn’t report it) wondering if i might have become pregnant. . . I do believe that men should be held responsible for every pregnancy esp when raped or coerced into having sex. Perhaps best if all men were neutered in early teens. This can be reversed in almost every case – and it is a simple quick minor surgery – much safer that all the contraceptives which women endure. Good luck to all women

Hi Katie (sorry I can’t use your real name), I am so so sorry to hear about the terrible time you’ve been having. I used to be an NHS doctor, and as far as I’m concerned it should be the midwife who reported you, not you, who is facing investigation. Every nurse and doctor who works in the NHS is taught from day one that patient confidentiality is an absolute, only to be broken in very specific circumstances. Your circumstance was not one of them, and she had no right to do what she did. It must be unbelievably stressful to have to go through an abortion and then emergency surgery, so to then be faced with criminal charges doesn’t bear thinking about. It makes me very angry that women are not allowed to own their own bodies. It makes me even angrier when I hear about other women as well as men interfering like this. I have been campaigning for women to have free access to abortion services, as well as for women in prisons to have proper access to maternity care. It seems that there has been a sudden increase in the number of women in your situation being prosecuted, which surely has no basis in today’s society, and we have to work hard to stop it. I’m sending you hope and strength and sisterly love, and the strongest wishes that all the charges against you are dropped. Good luck and stay strong, you have done nothing wrong. Diana x

Diana Brighouse

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