Reality show participant opens up about the trauma of feeling pressured into an abortion: 'I can't survive that again'

Despite the firestorm Netflix set off last year with its brief foray in pro-abortion politics over Georgia's heartbeat law, a recent reality dating show on the streaming platform actually offered viewers an honest, heart-rending look at the traumatic affect that abortion can have on women.

"Love is Blind" is a dating reality show on Netflix and hosted by former boy band singer Nick Lachey and his wife, Vanessa. It basically works like this: During the first phase of the show, a group of 30 single men and women — 15 of each — get to meet each other in a format that resembles speed dating, according to Entertainment Weekly, but is done through a thin wall where participants can only hear one another's voices from each other's "pod."

After that the participants can decide whether or not to get engaged to any of the other participants and — after some time getting to know each other outside of the show's voice-only "pod" environment — have to make a final decision about whether or not to get married.

During the second episode of the show's first season, which came out last month, a contestant named Amber opened up to another contestant, Barnett, about her traumatic experience of feeling pressured into getting an abortion for an unplanned pregnancy during a past relationship.

After telling her past significant other that she thought she was pregnant, Amber explained across the wall that "immediately he's in problem-solving mode: 'Well, how are we going to fix this?'" She went on to tell Barnett that she doesn't have children, "so obviously I didn't follow through with the pregnancy."

"It was really the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life," Amber said through tears, her voice starting to break.

In a cutaway shot, Amber explained, "I was still learning what it meant to be in love with somebody and, because I loved him so much, I, I had an abortion. S***. It's not exactly something that like I'm proud of."

As the camera returned to the interaction between the two contestants, Amber explained the difficulties she faced in the aftermath of aborting her child.

"After the fact, we were just talking; I'm telling him like, I'm trying to explain what I'm going through, like, I'm having a really hard time getting out of bed in the morning; I don't eat; I'm not really sleeping," Amber tearfully explained. "I just, this was supposed to be my other half, and his reaction, he goes, 'Why don't you just get over it? You just need to get over it already. Like, move on.'"

And that awful experience, Amber said, has informed her current expectations for romantic partners.

"That is the last thing in the world you want to hear," Amber said to Barnett. "I need to know that, if a situation like that comes up, and an unexpected pregnancy happens, it's not going to be, I won't be forced to choose. I can't survive that again. Like, I just I — it would destroy me."

(H/T: Newsbusters)