At just 16 years old, Natasha Woods was living in a hostel when she was raped by another resident. But, sadly, she was led to believe that in order to get justice, she would need to have an abortion to keep her rapist in prison.
From the moment she met Tony Gibson, the man who would become her rapist, Natasha felt uneasy around him. She says he would follow her, press up against her, and look at her in a “creepy” way. When she learned he would be moving out of the hostel, she was relieved. But on the night of his going-away party, she found herself accidentally alone with him. He then cornered her and raped her.
“Before I knew it Tony was standing in my way, with his arm out, blocking my exit,” she explained to The Sun. “I tried to push past him and when he wouldn’t budge, I started to panic.”
Natasha said that Gibson then “grabbed me, pushed me against the wall and started kissing my neck.” She struggled to escape, but he was much stronger than she was and he dragged her to his bedroom. No one heard her screams.
“When he was finished, he stood up and flexed his muscles in front of his mirror. Then he poured himself a glass of cider from a big plastic bottle,” explained Natasha. “Then he said, ‘Did you enjoy that?’ with a vile smirk on his face.”
When he went into the bathroom, Natasha ran. She got into her room, locked the door, removed her clothing, stuffed it under the bed, and didn’t leave for three days.
Eventually, a friend finally came looking for her, and after hearing what happened, advised Natasha to go to the police. She refused. Then Gibson began coming around the hostel, and he would “smirk” at her and on one occasion groped her.
“I felt dirty and worthless,” Natasha recalled. “Yet, I was still too scared to tell the police.”
A few weeks later, she realized she had missed her period… twice. She went to the doctor, told her about the rape, and discovered she was pregnant. The doctor told her that she would have to report the rape since Natasha was still a minor. Natasha decided to tell the police herself.
After talking with the police and giving them her still unwashed clothing from the night of the rape, Natasha began receiving threatening messages from Gibson. Then police told her that there wasn’t enough DNA on her clothing to prove that Gibson had raped her.
Only the baby’s DNA would be able to prove it, they told her.
Police then said that if she waited until the baby was born, Gibson would be out on bail in the meantime. Already frightened of him, Woods struggled with what to do. At 14 weeks pregnant, she felt as if her only option for protection from her attacker was to abort her baby. But this wasn’t true. A prenatal DNA test should have been encouraged by police or a physician, which would have spared Natasha the anguish of feeling forced to abort her baby.
14 weeks
“I knew the baby was innocent, but I couldn’t help wonder if I’d ever be able to look at him or her without being reminded of Tony and what he did to me,” she said. “And how would I ever be able to explain to my child that their father was a rapist?
“For weeks I tortured myself, trying to decide what to do. But eventually I came to a decision and decided to have an abortion so the police could perform a paternity test and hopefully jail the monster who attacked me.”
At 14 weeks, a D&E abortion is typically done, which involves ripping the baby out of the womb limb by limb, as explained in the video below by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino; however, police wanted Natasha’s baby intact:
Natasha said that tablets were inserted into her cervix to cause a miscarriage; therefore, her baby would be stillborn, in one piece. Natasha was in her second trimester of pregnancy.
After feeling contractions a few hours later, she delivered her son.
“My tiny little boy, who I named Ollie, was cleaned up and then my midwife placed him gently in a tiny yellow box with a beautiful knitted lining,” said Natasha. “It was like a miniature crib. I spent the next 15 minutes with my son. I took photos and said goodbye to him. Then he was taken away so a paternity test could be carried out.”
After the DNA test proved that Gibson was the father, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail.
“The judge told Tony, ‘You perpetrated a determined rape on a vulnerable teenager who was little more than a child. To make matters worse your act resulted in her pregnancy and necessitated her having to endure the procedures of the termination of the pregnancy’,” said Natasha.
Despite her rapist being put in jail, she still couldn’t move forward.
“I fell into a depression and struggled to get on with my life,” she explained. “[…] I’m still coming to terms with what happened. I look at my sons, who are three and one, and wonder what Ollie would look like now, and what his personality would be like.”
Ollie unnecessarily lost his own life in order to send his mother’s rapist to prison. However, seven years later, the rapist is out of prison and Ollie is still dead. Natasha was victimized twice at the vulnerable age of 16: once through rape, and once by being told she had to abort her baby in order to get justice for the rape.
In reality, Natasha and Ollie could have been saved from abortion if the police and doctors had stepped in and done the right thing. Prenatal paternity testing is available through amniocentesis or CVS testing and could have determined that Gibson was the father without having to end Ollie’s life. Seven years later, Natasha wouldn’t have to wonder what Ollie would be like and she wouldn’t have to live with the pain of having aborted him.
Women and children deserve better than the lie that abortion will solve their problems. In the end, it only creates more pain.
