International singing sensation Susan Boyle has revealed that she could have been aborted as a baby in her mother’s womb if her mum had followed doctors’ advice.
But to her mother, a devout Roman Catholic, an abortion was unthinkable and she went through with the pregnancy.
Miss Boyle said doctors had told Bridget Boyle, then a 45-year-old mother of eight, that having another baby could kill her.
Unthinkable
The singer, writing in her autobiography, said when she was born doctors commented she would “never be anything” and she has been “trying all my life to prove them wrong”.
The Scottish star, who shot to fame on ITV’s popular show Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, explores her life in her book entitled The Woman I Was Born To Be.
She explained the situation surrounding her birth: “The doctors considered the danger so severe they offered a termination but that would have been unthinkable for my mother, a devout Catholic”.
Serious
Miss Boyle continued: “During my birth in 1961 it was touch and go for her as well as me but, eventually, I was delivered by emergency caesarean section.
“When my mother came round from the anaesthetic, the doctor looked at her seriously.
“‘You have a girl,’ he told her. ‘She’s very small and she needs help with her respiration, so we have her in an incubator.’
“When my father Patrick appeared at my mother’s bedside, she knew something was wrong. ‘She was starved of oxygen for a wee while,'” he said.
Praise
The singer went on: “‘It’s probably best to accept Susan will never be anything,’ my parents were told. ‘Susan will never come to anything so don’t expect too much of her.'”
Miss Boyle wrote that the doctors shouldn’t have made those comments: “What they didn’t know was that I’m a fighter and I’ve been trying all my life to prove them wrong.”
In June opera singer Andrea Bocelli praised his mother for rejecting the advice of doctors to abort him on the grounds that he would be disabled.
Encourage
During a performance the blind Italian tenor paid tribute to his mother Edi for preserving his life.
Mr Bocelli, 51, said he hoped the story could encourage many mothers who may find themselves in difficult situations but want to save the life of their baby.
In February a pro-life advert was aired on US television to an audience of around 100 million viewers during the Super Bowl.
The advert featured Tim Tebow, a prominent figure in US college football, and his mother Pam, who tells the story of how she rejected the advice of doctors to abort her son.
Almost lost
Speaking about the pregnancy Mrs Tebow says: “He almost didn’t make it into this world” and adds: “I can remember so many times when I almost lost him.”
The advert then takes a more lighthearted turn as Pam Tebow is tackled by her 22-year-old quarterback son.
