Abortion: The controversial three days

We call Lara (name changed by the editors) on Facetime on a Friday morning. She is sitting in her bed when she answers. "I thought we were talking on the phone without a camera, " she says with a smile. So we agree to switch off our mobile phone cameras and switch to a voice call. And then the young woman starts to tell us her story about her abortion.

Lara found out she was pregnant six years ago. She was just 20 years old at the time. She was on birth control pills and, she says, was quite disciplined about it. Nevertheless, she waited in vain for her period in March 2018. When she also felt pulling abdominal pains and started to react sensitively to various odours, she took a pregnancy test. The result: positive. Feelings of despair and fear spread through Lara. That same day, she made an appointment with a gynaecologist in the south of the country and began to think about whether or not she wanted to have a child. In the end, however, she decided in favour of an abortion. What Lara didn't know was that she couldn't terminate her pregnancy that day. She had to think about her decision for at least three days, as this was required by law.