wrong [...] to crank up those fears." David Painton, a leading authority on abortion, expressed concern that such storylines bolster the views of anti-abortionists who "claim wrongly that the procedure is dangerous". Painton stated that although it is now virtually unknown for women to have difficulty conceiving again following a termination, if their doctor instructs a course of anti-biotics to stop infection, then it is important to take the medication. Summarising the storyline and its potential impact, Murray said, "In some ways, the EastEnders story could be seen as a useful cautionary tale. Sharon was properly informed about the risk, failed to act on her doctor's advice and suffers the consequences of her own failure. The scriptwriters can't be accused of presenting a false picture, although it's hard to imagine how anyone with half a brain, told that a course of antibiotics will protect her future fertility, wouldn't take the trouble to swallow a few tablets for a week." Discussing Sharon's initial exit in 1995, Alison Pearson writing for The Independent felt that the script, which saw Sharon misleading Grant into a reunion, was not in-keeping with the character. She commented, "In soap, character is destiny, and I have to say that I didn't really believe in Sharon's plan for elaborate revenge on Grant. It was a mechanism for getting actress Letitia Dean her freedom and not true to the nature of the character we had grown to know. You could not fault the central performances, though. Albert Square will be a less rounded place without Sharon." Conversely, reporter Matthew Bayliss was positive about the exit stating, "[Sharon] survived the sort of shunning normally suffered by 13th-century Welsh witches in order to wreak the perfect revenge on Grant, tricking him into publicly proposing to her, just so she could turn him down. Rarely has a character's exit been so satisfying to watch, and it was a homage to Sharon's strengths as a character that she left with so much unfinished business behind her." When it was announced in 2000 that Sharon was returning, Bayliss received the news positively. He suggested that viewers had invested a lot in Sharon, in that they had come to believe in her, having followed her over a large number of years, transgressing from teenager to adult. He described Sharon as an engaging, complex and great soap character, commending the producers of EastEnders for bringing her