At first, there was pin drop silence. Then, mother suddenly screamed out, as though she had suffered a delayed reaction. “Ahhhhhh! You this girl, you have finished me! Abortion? Oh, my God!”
I didn’t even know how to react. I sat up on the bed and gazed into space. The doctor tried to calm down my mum. “It’s alright, ma, you need to be strong for your daughter, remember the circumstance under which she got pregnant,” he tried to placate her. “She didn’t plan for this to happen, she was raped, remember?”
“But how does that change anything, doctor, how does that change the fact that she is pregnant and the baby has no father?” she cried out.
That hurt me deeply. Hearing mother sounding so heartbroken shattered me. This is what Bobby and his uncle brought upon me. This is my lot in life.
“But, madam, if you don’t mind my professional advice, I think that, at this stage, it is safe for her to have a D&C, to save your daughter the shame of having a child when she should be in school with her mates,” the doctor said to mum. “And to make things even more complicated,” he continued, “the young man responsible for the pregnancy has fled to Lagos. I think that, in thgis kind of situation, it is better for her to abort the pregnancy to save the entire family, especially your daughter, the trauma of carrying a child that will only bring tears to her eyes owing to the circumstances surrounding the birth.”
But mother was barely listening to him. She was just shaking her head vigorously as the doctor explained things to him. “No, doctor, my daughter cannot do abortion o, she cannot…I don’t want anything to happen to my daughter o….” she continued to cry.
“But I can assure you, madam, that nothing will happen to her,” the doctor assured her. “The pregnancy is only weeks old, so it is completely safe now to do it. There is no risk involved.”
But mother was not convinced. “Doctor, what is the guarantee that my daughter will still be able to bear children?”
“Of course, she will, madam, she will. And I am giving you my word on that!”
Mother struggled with herself. I saw the anguish on her face. She was weighing her options. She neded reassurance that nothing would happen to me if she tok the option of a D&C. Inside me, I prayed she should have the courage to go through with it and let me do the D&C. But she couldn’t go through it.
“No, doctor, I’m sorry, I can’t,” she said quietly, almost in whispers. “I can’t let my daughter have the abortion, if something goes wrong now or later in the future, I will never be able to forgive myself.” She turned to me. “Rosemary, let us accept our fate, maybe this is the way God wants you to go through life, we will have to keep the baby…”
“A child that has no father, mother? How am I supposed to live with the shame?” I cried.
“You didn’t think of that before going to the house of a boy you barely knew? See where it hs landed you now,” and she started to sob.
“But, mother, it was a mistake, a mistake I have come to regret, please fdon’t make it any worse for me by asking me too keep the baby. What will happen to my education? What will happen to me, mother? Without an education my life will be ruined.
“God will teach us how to go abort it, but for now, you cannot abort that child you’re carrying,” she said with finality.
“So, you want me to become a mother at my age?” I asked her.
“Girls much younger than you have become mothers in this town, so what makes yours different?” she shot back.
“What about father, he won’t allow me stay in the house with the pregnancy. You heard him when he said it, how do you plan to convince father to forgive me and accept the pregnancy?”
“My dear, when we get to that bridge we will know how to cross it, all I know is that I won’t let you abort that pregnancy…”
I was exasperated but I had to control myself. “Mother, but we are not getting to any bridge, we are already at the bridge. Father will not allow me inside the house with this pregnancy,” I said to her.
At this point, the doctor interjected. “Madam, this is a family affair so I cannot take a position unless I’m asked to do. Like I told you before, my professional advice is that she takes a D&C now that the pregnancy is still very young and puts her at no risk at all. Moreso, the pregnancy came about from an unfortunate incident. How is she going to deal with the stigma that will come with it? But, like I said, this just my own personal and professional advice, you are at liberty to take it or leave it. And if you eventually decide to go for the D&C, I will always be here to handle it all for you.”
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