# Head of Aborted Fetus Left in and Later Slips Out
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 20, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655 "2004-08-20T03:10:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/1 "2004-08-20T03:10:34Z")
Is this story true?
> [@](#):
>
> A British hospital is now investigating the case of a woman who had an abortion, but then was shocked to find out the head of her unborn baby had been left inside her.
>
> snip
>
> “At midnight, my ex-partner knocked on the door to check if I was all right. … I went to the bathroom and as I was sitting there, I just felt something slip out of me as if I had just given birth. I looked in the toilet and saw this lump that seemed to have a bone in it. So I showed it to my former partner.”
>
> The couple realized they were looking at the face of their unborn child, seeing the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The tiny head measured no more than 4 centimeters.
[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE\_ID=40024](http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40024)
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### Author:  [@DefyingGravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DefyingGravity)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/2 "2004-08-20T03:45:50Z")
> [@Kel Varnsen - Latex Division](#):
>
> Is this story true?
>
> [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE\_ID=40024](http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40024)
I think a warning about that rather disturbing picture would have been appropriate!
Karen
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### Author:  [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/3 "2004-08-20T03:52:29Z")
IIRC, World Net Daily is reputable enough.
Here are some other links, although I can’t help you as to the veracity. Perhaps these sites will.
[http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/aug/040816.html](http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/aug/040816.html)
Fetus-head picture warning (NSFW) [http://www.voice-online.net/content.php?show=4695&type=1](http://www.voice-online.net/content.php?show=4695&type=1)
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### Author:  [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/4 "2004-08-20T05:49:21Z")
_deep breath_
GAAAHHH!!
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/5 "2004-08-20T06:47:02Z")
That poor, poor woman - I mean, what _else_ can go wrong in her life?! She’s miserably ill, she has children to take care of, she ends up pregnant by mistake and has to make the very difficult choice to terminate, and then _surprise_!! That would really mess _me_ up, and I’m healthy and relatively stress-free.
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### Author:  [@dry\_gear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dry_gear)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/6 "2004-08-20T07:38:42Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#):
>
> IIRC, World Net Daily is reputable enough.
I belive you don’t recall correctly. I’m pretty sure WND has a bad reputation around here.
The whole thing sounds like pro-life propaganda, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/7 "2004-08-20T07:48:11Z")
How would there be distinct eyes, ears, nose and a mouth on a head measuring 4 cm? I don’t know if that’s supposed to be 4 cm around or 4 cm long or what, but some googling and conversion tell me that’s only an inch and a half…
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/8 "2004-08-20T10:56:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The whole thing sounds like pro-life propaganda, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true
So if it is true would it still be propaganda?
How do the most pro-choice\* leaning people view this, just a lump of cells? An attempt of pro-life doctors to undermind them?
- Note I do not like using the term ‘pro-choice’, but using it out of respect to keep things civilized.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/9 "2004-08-20T11:02:16Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> So if it is true would it still be propaganda?
It could (and would be) USED as propaganda, absolutely.
> [@](#):
>
> How do the most pro-choice\* leaning people view this, just a lump of cells?
I view it as a lump of bullshit from an online, right-wing tabloid that should be taken seriously if and only if it’s confirmed by somebody worth reading. In the unlikely event it’s true, I’d view it as a horrible freak occurance.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/10 "2004-08-20T11:13:01Z")
It’s odd that it doesn’t seem to be in any UK publications.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/11 "2004-08-20T11:36:36Z")
[Original article](http://www.voice-online.net/content.php?show=4695&type=1).
I don’t really see why bigger news agencies should have thought this particularly newsworthy - a small piece of bone 4cm across was accidentally left in the uterus after the [curettage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilation_and_curettage) of the 12-week old foetus. I would imagine that it might be quite common for a piece of foetal material to stick to the uterus - in this case it was the tiny but gruesomely photogenic face.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-of-aborted-fetus-left-in-and-later-slips-out/260655/12 "2004-08-20T11:50:17Z")
In the event that this is real, then:
> [@](#):
>
> How do the most pro-choice\* leaning people view this, just a lump of cells?
It’s nothing that would change anybody’s views on abortion except by virtue of the fact that it’s gross. Unless you can explain to me how ‘fetuses have faces (like anybody didn’t know that)’ -\> ‘abortion is murder.’