A British woman is to sue the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for the trauma she claims to have suffered because of having an abortion.
The woman, who has not been named, had an abortion four years ago.
Although she said she regretted it immediately, the full impact hit her only after the birth of her son, when she says she began to experience feelings of guilt and self-hatred and was on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
She says staff should have warned her of potential psychological consequences of the abortion. "It was very frightening. It just felt what I was doing was wrong," she told the BBC. "I felt as soon it was done, I knew, 'What a mistake'.
"I was denying it for about three years. I was trying to put it to the back of my mind as much as possible."
Then she had a child. "The feelings all flooded back three years later, after I'd had my son," she said.
She says she was seen by a family doctor and by a surgeon and was warned of possible physical side effects, but not psychological consequences.
The number giving Irish addresses who seek abortions in Britain rose last year to 6,625, the highest to date. Irish anti-abortion campaigners say post-operative trauma is not uncommon and are likely to watch any British litigation for data that supports their argument.
However, the UK's Royal College of Gynaecologists, which set down guidelines for medical staff in 2000, and organisations such as the Family Planning Association (FPA), said yesterday there were rarely serious psychological consequences from abortion.
"That is not to say to women that you don't have strong feelings afterwards," said Mr Toni Belfield of the FPA. "You may feel relieved, have mixed feelings or feel sad. They are natural reactions to a situation you did not want to be in."
About one in five pregnancies end in termination, she said, and yet it was still a big secret. Women should be helped to make a decision and live with it free from guilt, she added.
A woman who seeks an abortion on the NHS will talk to a doctor or other medical professional about the reasons and her feelings before being referred to a clinic, where she will have a further consultation before the operation. She will be offered counselling before and after the termination.
Mr Ian Jones, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which performs around 50,000 of more than 170,000 abortions a year in England and Wales, said that last year only 123 came back for counselling after the operation.