Tacitly, he admits being “on edge”. Tears are close. At around thirty years old, this young teacher has just witnessed his companion’s decision to abort, helpless.
His face lights up when he speaks of being a father, the news of this baby to come had brought him such joy. To her too, at start. She was happy; she thought she couldn’t have any children. She talked about keeping it. And then, suddenly, she changed her mind: “I don’t know what happened”.
Mickaël and his companion talk about it. Together, they decide to consult an organization that helps women confronted with the question of aborting. He remains quiet and lets her do the talking. She starts crying. In the evening, they have another appointment together to see a gynaecologist. His companion turns up early. A quarter of an hour later, the consultation is over. Just as he arrives, she comes out with a signed document granting her the authorisation to abort. He isn’t even able to take part in the consultation. He goes up to the gynaecologist’s office and rings. She opens the door and explains that she doesn’t want to see him: “It was very important to me. I couldn’t understand why I had been left out of the consultation. I was the one with whom the baby was conceived. She didn’t know my companion, nor did she know me”. Mickaêl has absolutely no legal recourse. It is accompanied by her mother that his companion will end up going to the second appointment. She refuses to tell him when the abortion is planned. They split up.
« I had never been confronted with such a situation. I put up a fight for three weeks. I told her I would raise the child on my own. But, until the very end, the more I fought so that she kept the baby, the more she closed up.” He brushes aside all the obstacles: money, solutions that did exist concerning the flat… He meets his companion’s mother, his sister-in-law, and enters into the family secrets. Mickaêl is abashed, he feels helpless faced with the situation. Dispossessed. He cries a lot and hangs on to the couple of kind people who support him daily in his fight. As to his companion, she is surrounded with people who advise her to abort.
He meets up with her: “She was even more closed than usual. She told me that the abortion had occurred two days earlier. She was extremely shocked by the way the things had happened; she said the gynaecologist had had no compassion. How could he have? I was feeling down to, I didn’t answer. She, whom I had known so gentle, had become so cold.”
He is still surprised about the way abortion is normalized: « Simply, on a logical point of view, people know what happens when one aborts. They know there is a serious issue of conscience”. Hurt, in pain, he is thinking of committing himself to the defence of life, but he isn’t really sure yet. “If I was feeling strong and well-armed…, but I don’t really know if it’s the right time.
To dig deeper: cf. L’avortement n’épargne pas les hommes.(Men not spared by abortion)