The dad of two has previously held the image of a family man and a committed Christian.
According to The Sun on Sunday newspaper he told his previous partner he could not afford another child, despite earning in the region of £3.3 million a year.
It has been reported that he urged her to go ahead with a termination after the woman had a panic attack at the hospital.
The unnamed Catholic woman told the paper: "It makes me so mad that he was a faithful Christian that he could behave like this."
She said that she felt she had been manipulated: "I feel totally betrayed and I now only think he stayed with me so I'd go ahead with the abortion.
"It seems to me that he psychologically abused me to have an abortion that I did not want and it did not seem to affect him at all."
His wife filed for divorce in 2010.
The unnamed woman said that Christianity played a big part in Howard's life: "His house was nice and it had lots of religious artefacts on the walls like crucifixes and plaques of Bible verses."
She told The Sun that once she told him that she was pregnant he made his feelings clear: "I believed he was a good Christian and he would support me."
She told him about her reluctance to abort the baby with messages: "You are blessed with two children. I am killing ours. Eughhhh!!!!"
It is also reported that she told him she did not want to go against something God had decided. She said he replied saying: "Well let's start here... you go against God every day.
"We all do, so let's not lean on that.
"I'm a faithful Christian too."
The woman went ahead with the termination and the couple broke up shortly afterwards.
Howard, who volunteers at a church youth group in Manchester, has previously spoken about his religion: "My faith is very important.
"I try and live as best I can.
"I'm just a vehicle for Christ."
The ex-Man United player also released a book in 2010 that spoke about the importance of his religion.
In a statement Mr Howard said: "This is a private matter and it is unfortunate that, for whatever reason, the person concerned has chosen to take her version of events to the public.
"I have no interest in discussing it further."
