When she found out she was pregnant, Maya Oppenheim knew that, like thousands of women, she could face difficulties trying to have a termination. But what she discovered were problems at every stage of a process that experts warn is at breaking point. I was squatting on the floor of the toilet in Westfield Stratford shopping centre when I found out I was pregnant. Squinting at the test, I initially thought it said “progress”, but on closer inspection, the word “pregnant” was flashing in front of me. Before long, another sign popped up, reading “2 to 3 weeks”, but that turned out to be wrong. In fact, I was far further along in my pregnancy.
As soon as it dawned on me that I might be pregnant, I needed to know for sure immediately. But as I marched through Boots, frantically asking where the pregnancy tests were, in my heart of hearts I already knew. With breasts so tender they felt like they had been inflated with a bicycle pump, and my period nowhere to be seen, there were few other plausible options.
One of the first things I did after taking the pregnancy test was to call my mum. Before I’d even got the words out, she told me: “I know what you’re going to say – I could see it in your face.” A million different thoughts hurtled around my head as I tried to remain calm in the most uncalm of places. It felt surreal to be standing inside a shopping centre while struggling to come to terms with the fact that I was pregnant, though there was something almost comforting about the indifference of the sea of preoccupied shoppers hurrying around me.