A 20-year-old Dublin woman was reduced to tears and suffered from depression following "counselling" by the Aadam's Women's Centre.
The pregnancy counselling agency was named by The Irish Times yesterday as the subject of criticism by the High Court for having unlawful custody of Baby A.
The woman and her mother spoke to The Irish Times yesterday after the name of the agency was published, following a High Court decision to allow the paper to identify the Aadam's Women's Centre. "When I read the article it all came back to me," said her mother. "Last January my daughter was seven weeks pregnant. She was confused and panicking and did not know what to do. She was considering an abortion. We said we'd support her whatever she decided. I suggested she go for counselling. We saw this ad in the Golden Pages and rang up the number."
They received an appointment at the address used by the Aadam's agency, and the woman and her mother went to the appointment together.
"We didn't believe we had the right house. It looked derelict. The house was very old and very cold. There was a middle-aged couple there - I don't think they lived there.
"We were brought in and the man brought my daughter upstairs. I wanted to go with her but they would not let me. I was kept downstairs and she gave me tea. My daughter was kept up there for an hour and a half."
Her daughter remembers it vividly. "In the room upstairs there was a small table and two chairs, and a television and video in the corner. The carpet was scruffy. The man asked me to do a pregnancy test and I went to the bathroom down the hall, which was just as bad. He asked me had I been using any protection.
"He took out a dummy of a 10-week-old foetus and said this was what was inside me, and did I want to kill it. Then he put on the video and showed all the instruments and how they perform an abortion. It was awful. I'm still going through it.
"He gave me all these pictures and letters from people he said went to him and decided to have their babies. There were pictures of the babies. He gave me medals and prayers, and a poem meant to be from a foetus to its mother asking not to be killed. It was spooky."
According to her mother, she was crying and extremely distressed when she came downstairs. They both left the premises in tears. After the visit, the girl could not sleep. Her mother said her daughter had also been told "not to mind her mammy and daddy".
"They said they'd put her in a home and give her pocket money, and get someone to take the baby until she was ready to take it back."
The couple also referred the woman to a doctor, but her mother would not let her keep this appointment as the name of the doctor was familiar to her from another controversy in which the doctor had been involved.
The woman had decided to keep her baby, but she had a miscarriage at 12 weeks. During the miscarriage, the images she had been shown haunted her. "It was terrible. After I lost the baby, I went off the rails. I was drinking, out 'till all hours - I wouldn't listen to my parents."
Her mother remembers her being extremely distressed and depressed. Only in the past few months has she re-established a stable personal life, she said.
After her experience she did not seek any further counselling, and relied on her parents for support. "They were brilliant, they're the best," she said.
If she had not had the miscarriage her baby would be due this weekend. The fact that her due date coincides with the controversy surrounding this agency has brought her experiences back to her, and with it the determination to warn other young women who might be in a similar situation.