Orwell Paints Abortion in the Soul

In Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Orwell describes the protagonist's reaction to the suggestion from the girl he impregnated that she get an abortion:

"That pulled him up. For the first time he grasped, with the only kind of knowledge that matters, what they were really talking about. The words 'a baby' took on a new significance. They did not mean any longer a mere abstract disaster, they meant a bud of flesh, a bit of himself, down there in her belly, alive and growing. His eyes met hers. They had a strange moment of sympathy such as they had never had before. For a moment he did feel that in some mysterious way they were one flesh. Though they were feet apart he felt as though they were joined together–as though some invisible living cord stretched from her entrails to his. He knew then that it was a dreadful thing they were contemplating–a blasphemy, if that word had any meaning."