Holly Willoughby left close to tears during graphic abortion debate on This Morning
Fans said the host looked shocked
Mum of three Holly Willoughby became emotional whilst presenting This Morning as graphic details about abortions were revealed.
Journalist Nilufer Atik had joined the program to discuss new abortion laws and explained how she thought it should be illegal to have an abortion after 24 weeks. Agony aunt, Hilary Freeman, presented the view that abortion should be legal throughout a pregnancy.
Warning: this article contains content which some readers may find offensive.
Holly became uncomfortable as Nilufer started graphically describing how she believed abortions to work. The journalist said: “What is the difference between aborting that child the day before he or she is due to be born and murdering that child the instant he or she is born. I don’t see the difference.
“I think a lot of people don’t realise, in the very late stages of pregnancy how barbaric an abortion is. The fetus is literally dismembered inside of you.”
Hilary, arguing that abortion should be legal at any stage of a pregnancy, stated; "Well my personal opinion is that the mother's life is more important than the baby's until the baby is born. In late terminations a woman has to go through full childbirth.
"When I terminated my baby I had an injection in my stomach and I then had to walk around with the baby dead inside me for two days and then had to go through a full labour."
Viewers took to Twitter to voice concern over the content and how upset Holly appeared to be.
The discussion took place after the Chief of the Royal College of Midwives, Cathy Warwick, backed a campaign for abortion to be legal up until birth.
However a petition has been signed more than 10,000 times calling for her to retract her stance, especially as the issue allegedly hadn't been discussed with union members.
The law currently states that abortions must be carried out in a hospital or a licensed clinic before 24 weeks, after which a termination can only take place for medical reasons such as a risk to life.
If you've been affected or to find out more about this issue, visit the NHS website here.