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Linda Atkins

Linda Atkins

Linda Atkins is an obstetrician, married with three children. Her essay ‘Shouting Abortion’ was shortlisted for the 2022 Calibre Essay Prize.

'Shouting Abortion: A doctor reflects on the politics and economics of terminations' by Linda Atkins

June 2022, no. 443 23 May 2022
I performed my first abortion when I was twenty-five years old. I didn’t want to: I had seen abortions performed before and knew the procedure was messy and brutal. The women were lightly anaesthetised, unparalysed, not intubated. Sometimes a woman would twitch, even flinch, under the anaesthesia as her cervix was dilated and her uterus evacuated. I wondered if any of the women knew in a visce ... (read more)