Professor Eva Pajkrt:

When we interact with women, we have to ask questions to figure out whether they need more help. We know, from the literature and personal experience, that abortion is always a very difficult decision. If a woman has her arguments very straight before the event, it is easier for her to cope with it afterwards. In that respect, the reflection time gives each woman an opportunity to get her act together and think about all the pros and cons. This is especially true for a woman who is confronted with structural or chromosomal anomalies. If she is considering termination, her first reaction is always "My baby has this and I want a termination now". I always advise such a woman not to do it while she is going through loop after loop on a rollercoaster. When the rollercoaster finally stops at the end of the day, if she has had a termination and has returned home, she will think about what has happened and it will really hit her. The grieving process has to start before a woman rushes into an abortion. I do not have data or psychological studies on that, but I have been counselling women for many years and not once has a woman come back to me to say it was inhuman of me to make her wait. Women tend to tell me it was nice for them and their partners to have a great weekend together to do something nice, to think about it, to discuss it, to talk to their families and to make the decision. Although they are very sad about their circumstances, they tend to think they have made the only right choice.