{"id":212915,"date":"2019-10-27T15:28:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T20:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=212915"},"modified":"2019-10-26T01:39:15","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T06:39:15","slug":"bachelor-contestant-abortion-deep-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/bachelor-contestant-abortion-deep-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bachelor’ contestant recalls painful abortion experience that left her in a ‘deep depression’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A contestant on the “Bachelor: Australia” has opened up about her past abortion and the effect it had on her life. Abbie Chatfield competed with other women for the heart of astrophysicist Matt Agnew, yet ended the season as a runner-up, losing to Chelsie McLeod. This was alleged to be in large part because there were doubts about her readiness for marriage and children; yet in a new podcast, Chatfield has opened up about what caused that uncertainty: her abortion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In her interview on the “Shameless” podcast<\/a>, Chatfield explained that she had undergone an abortion in March of 2018, just before appearing on the show. But the traumatic emotions continued to haunt her throughout the show, and affected her experience. She said she was continually asked by the show’s producers and other contestants about babies, and would cry every time. “I’m so sick of having to justify [to these women] why I haven’t been screaming from the rooftops,’I want kids,'” she explained. “At the time, I felt guilty for saying I wanted kids because I aborted one in March last year.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Research shows post-abortion trauma is very real, and women aren\u2019t alone<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They also brought on Snezana Wood and Laura Byrne, both former winners of the show who are currently pregnant, which also caused Chatfield to get upset. “The producer asked me if I was wondering what it was like to be pregnant, like a general ‘Isn’t it nice to see Snez and Laura pregnant? Wouldn’t it be nice to be pregnant with someone you love?'” she said. “And because I had an abortion last year, I just started sobbing.”<\/p>\n

When she tried to discreetly tell Agnew about her abortion, producers pressured her to get the conversation on tape. “I whispered it to him and his producer didn’t hear me and said, ‘Abbie, you are going to have to say it out loud,'” she recalled, explaining that she begged them not to air that footage. “And then I turned around, looked dead in the camera and said, ‘I had a f***ing abortion last year.'” She also said she had been open with the other contestants in the house about it. But after the disastrous experience with Agnew and the producers, she broke down.<\/p>\n

“After that I went and sobbed on that bed in the foetal position, like scream crying and I was like ‘I’m going to leave,’ so then Matt came in and got me and we had a bit of a chat and he said, ‘We’re dropping it,'” she said.<\/p>\n