• By: Arc

Level: 2

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This arCticle is inspired by the alarming number of young maidens who come to me for abortifacients…I am a pharmacist and almost on a daily basis I meet pretty girls who ask for a “solution” to their problem…So I’d give my advice here on this platform and pray to heavens they don’t keep coming because I am obliged by profession to throw my Catholicism out the window, listen and not judge…

All sorts of stories are told, hit phrases:

• My mom would kill me
• We are not ready
• I am a student
• My boyfriend has travelled abroad
• I am not from here
• He spiked my La Casera
• I don’t know how it happened

Some true, some carefully crafted to turn my empathy into sympathy (I do my best not to let them). A few times I’ve come across real bold ones who admit it’s the umpteenth time they have done such; in which case I just send them away with the sentence “We don’t do such here” or “We don’t sell drug M without a prescription.” The ones I really empathize with however are the naïve girls or at least the girls that appear that way (yes there is that clueless-scared-to-death look). I take these ones into the counseling room and do my best to counsel them without implicating myself in the “conceived crime” against the Holy Spirit (Duty over belief eh). Here are the steps to abortion just like I preach to my naïve clients:

1. The Confirmation: So you have missed your period…It is late by over a week and you cannot offer explanations for the delay @ contraceptive/medication induced and hormonal imbalance. The knowledge that you have not been a “very good” girl that month makes you even more disturbed. Proceed to get a pregnancy test strip i.e. hCG detection strip; your chances of a false negative test at this stage is about 10 percent (test strips start to detect hCG after implantation which is 6 to 12 days after ovulation; menstruation should occur 14 days after ovulation on the average). This means that when you see those two lines you are 90 percent “with child.” Please do as much confirmatory tests as you can afford and get the “gestational age” of the pregnancy @ ultrasonography (highly important and would influence many decisions). You would not want to panic for nothing so be absolutely sure, make sure you are 100 percent pregnant. “She who throws up two mornings in a row cannot be certified pregnant”        

N/B: Testing for pregnancy within HOURS of “contraceptionless” intercourse is real USELESS as the accuracy of a pregnancy test is related to the day of ovulation and not the day of intercourse or insemination. Sperm can live up to five days in the fallopian tubes waiting for ovulation to occur before implantation (which allows hCG detection). Most pregnancy tests give false negatives up to 17days after the “act” that caused the pregnancy.

BEWARE these drugs give false positive results—chlorpromazine (phenothiazines) and methadone.

2. Realization: So its confirmed…You are pregnant; you are with child; life is within you…Understand what this means, believe it, wrap your head around it…Your Child has started life’s journey.

3. Decision Making: You have tried to sleep and dream the child away and failed…You wake up knowing that yesterday was real…You are indeed pregnant in real life and time…Next up decision making…Before I delve into this I must say that you should never ever make this decision alone, life is way bigger than you…You must talk to someone, start with a friend and confidant—your roomie, mom or the guy whose sperm fused with your egg. These people would help you through evaluation, the “actor” is extremely important, he MUST be contacted… By all means inform family where they would not lynch you or send you to the streets…Pregnancy, evaluation and ++++ should never be handled alone…Common evaluation points:

• Age
• Finance
• Religious belief (All important; nothing is greater than your soul)
• Education and life pursuit
• Family
• Readiness of partner-in-crime to commit and be “responsible.” Emphasizing that he MUST be informed; it’s his child and he must have a say; no billy should get a lady pregnant and enjoy a worry free sunset.

4. Forming the Line: So you have gone through the points above with close non-judging counsel and everything counts against keeping the child except perhaps religion and “human ethics;” the next step is forming the line you would cling to and tell your head for the rest of your life:

• I had an abortion cause the child was a product of rape, I couldn’t live with the daily reminder
• I had an abortion cause I was in school and I could not forfeit my academic pursuit
• I had an abortion cause I was too young and my pelvis couldn’t handle childbirth
• I had an abortion cause there is a 40 percent chance I would die during childbirth
• I had an abortion to ensure I remained my father’s daughter
• I had an abortion because my boyfriend, fiancé or even husband wasn’t ready etc.

After you have formed a line; cling to it, believe it and recite it in front of a mirror like you preparing for a “lie-detector” examination. This decision would haunt you your whole life, you need a line to suppress or shoo the thoughts.

5. Go to a HOSPITAL: Not a chemist or a pharmacy, a HOSPITAL…When you explain what you are there for you should be directed to a counselor (Note most hospitals house Doctors and Nurses who don’t give a rats ass about their oaths and professional obligations; these ones rain abuses on the young maiden and send her off without thinking of the consequence of allowing her get “advice” from elsewhere). So you visit a proper hospital, one that houses professionals…You would be handed over to a counselor who would make sure you have gone through steps 1-4. When your counselor is satisfied, you should be medically evaluated and the gestational age of your child determined. This would guide the gynaecologist on the appropriate course to take-surgery, medical or labor induction. In the case of medical abortion you would be handed a prescription for abortifacient pharmaceuticals.

6. Get It Done: You have come this far, be strong…Search yourself, is there even a 1% chance you can actually go through with keeping the baby? Walk into any pharmacy and hand in your prescription. On seeing a branded or letter headed prescription (duly signed), the pharmacist is satisfied that you have gone through steps 1-5. He/she gives you your pills along with expert advice on usage and other effects.

Trust me you do not want to have an abortion without going through these steps. You are at greater risk of severe emotional damage and worse still medical complications when you do not handle your situation via these outlined steps. In my opinion having an abortion is a life changing experience and you should be looking to come out of it with the least amount of damage (make no mistake there must be “damage”).

Unsafe abortions cause 47,000 deaths and 5 million hospital admissions each year and we all know where this statistic is coming from. In Africa, Nigeria, there is no such record and a million girls might be lost per year to unsafe abortions for all we know. Steps 5 and 6 are very important, don’t listen to what Matilda says she did during her own time; you are not Matilda. Don’t let your cruel boyfriend run down the street to get you pills. Seek professional help and seek it the right way; 5 before 6 and only after going through 1-4. Make sure a practicing license is liable if damage to your reproductive organs does occur.

To all health professionals, do not send these young maidens off with a wave of the hand; talk to them, guide them. Whatever your religion and belief hear them out; you just might save a young girl’s life, happiness or future. Do not leave them at the mercy of patent medicine dealers (sorry to say); they might hand them “life-changing” pills at outrageous doses.

To all young girls never allow yourself get into this situation, indeed it is a devil and deep blue sea scenario

• Close thy legs
• Less sex, less chances of getting pregnant
• Use contraception- condoms, pills, devices all backed up by withdrawal on the guy’s part…Nothing is 100 percent, best to combine one or two methods…Don’t let him spill and sleep in there just because you would take an after pill…
• Always always date boys that you can finger point as the father of your child and retain some pride. It helps if you are pregnant for a focused human being rather than the “hood player.”
• To avoid the “spiking scenario”, don’t be too trusting, analyze the men you let too close to you or you go too close to…Public meeting places is ideal for testing the waters.

…True- Abortion is illegal in our dear country unless it is performed to save the life of a pregnant woman (Carries a heavy jail sentence-up to 14 years imprisonment)…Perhaps this is why professionals run from it…Well now I know my next response to clients—The law forbids that you get help…All in all, young maidens in this kind of sticky situation need a listening ear…
Lawyers can still argue what it means to “Save the LIFE of a pregnant woman.” Life being the key word…
As Catholic—Abortion is EVIL
As Nigerian—Abortion is Illegal
As Pharmacist—If you must do it, do it right

SHARE NOW TO HELP A YOUNG MAIDEN SOMEWHERE….

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