Four abortions ..now I'll never have children

With the number of women having multiple abortions rising in Britain, Karen Collier explains why she's had four - and her devastation at now being left childless.
By Angela Carless
18/02/2010

Terminating a pregnancy, is a decision no woman wants to have to make. However valid her reason for choosing an abortion, it is always a traumatic and terrifying experience.

But Karen Collier, who has had four abortions in 14 years, says she has paid the ultimate price for ending her pregnancies as she now faces the prospect of being childless.

"I take responsibility for my actions, but I think I've been very unlucky. I would have loved to have been a mother," she says.

Karen, 43, represents a growing trend for multiple abortions. Almost 210,000 women had abortions in England, Wales and Scotland in 2008 - the highest figure in Europe. Of these a third were repeat abortions, with rising numbers of women having three, four or more terminations. And last week new statistics showed the number of unplanned pregnancies in the over 40s is now the same as the under 16s. the rest