A Norwegian man who slipped abortion pills into his ex-girlfriend’s smoothie and caused her to have a miscarriage claims it was “the only way out.”

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty Monday to inflicting serious bodily harm and also to terminating a pregnancy without the mother’s consent. The prosecution wants a seven-year sentence.

The 20-year-old woman lost the baby in her 12th week of pregnancy, following the man’s second attempt to sneak her abortion pills. The first time he tried passing off the pills, which he bought online, as painkillers.

“He tried several times to convince me to have an abortion but it was not an option for me,” the woman told a court in Trondheim, reports the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

After drinking the smoothie, the woman experienced severe abdominal pain and later miscarried that evening.

She asked her doctor to run several tests, which confirmed that the miscarriage had been induced by a high dose of abortion medicine, The Local reports.

The man told a Norwegian court he “had a bad conscience and felt remorse, but I thought that it was the only way out.

“I read online that pills could cause deformities if they did not work. After the first attempt didn’t work, I thought that if it was my fault that the child was born with major malformations, I would not be able to live with that. So I decided to try again.

“I felt like a total sh-tbag when it dawned on me what I had done.”

The man’s lawyer, Tore Angen, told the Adresseavisenthe newspaper his client deserved leniency.

“It’s totally wrong with a sentence of seven years, especially considering that he has confessed and has custody over a child from before,” he said.

The court will make a ruling on March 17.