Compassion for the partner
The sadness felt by terminating the pregnancy was shared with the partner
especially when fetal malformation was the reason for the abortion. One woman
said that her husband had difficulties in expressing and processing emotions and
she worried about how he would grieve and move on after the abortion. When
women had expressed pain or other negative feelings they said that it must have
been hard for the partner being next to her but without being able to help. One
woman mentioned that she did not want to burden anyone and therefore chose to
be alone during the abortion.
‘‘I felt most sorry for him because he wanted to do so much more than he could.’’