When I aborted nearly three years ago, it was, indeed, a tremendous relief. I spent several hellish weeks before the procedure groaning in hormonal discomfort as I lumbered around my college campus. By the time I made it to the clinic, I was so miserable that I just wanted it over with and out of me. I had plans. I wanted to finish school. A baby was not an option. And my life-long Republican parents, astonishingly, supported, even encouraged, my decision.
But the stigma lingered. The few friends to whom I disclosed early on wept for me or told me that my “shocking” confession momentarily stopped their hearts. I recoiled each and every time the abortion debate surfaced on my television screen, in my inbox, in the overheard conversations of friends and acquaintances. I’d burst into tears at inappropriate moments for no apparent reason. I felt closeted, alone. Suicide crossed my mind on more than one occasion as I contemplated my “selfish” decision to abort a child. After all, I told myself, my mom and late grandma sacrificed everything for their children.
Consider a sexism-free society in which women aren’t shackled to essentialist notions of motherhood. Consider a society in which women aren’t accosted by screaming antis and gruesome, doctored images of seemingly-mangled fetuses outside of abortion clinics. Consider a society in which “abortion” isn’t a foul and unutterable word. Consider a society in which this safe and legal medical procedure is treated as normal and is readily available—a society in which abortion providers and their families aren’t subjected to threats of violence and heinous acts of murder.
In this society, there would be no such thing as “Post-Abortion Syndrome” (there isn’t now, but you know what I mean). And I’m quite sure that I never would’ve experienced the so-called symptoms that I experienced.
So, yes, antis, I blame you.
A lot of the women who are Silent No More were pro-choice, too, hun.
I love how she fears being misinterpreted.
Gee-- having the same post-abortive symptoms as other Silent No More witnesses...what could possibly be misinterpreted in that?
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I'm still somewhat under the weather people. I just saw this and had to publish.
