Some of us don’t feel safe, mentally or physically, sharing our stories, because they are not the extreme. We are not the women who needed a medical procedure to save our lives, or whose bodies were violated by strangers or loved ones. Our decisions, therefore, seem less ethically justifiable in today’s society. Yet we chose what we did for our own reasons, which sound trite and selfish to many, but which speak volumes in our heads every time the debate comes up in conversation or the news. The law has been interpreted to protect us. We shouldn’t feel so alone.
Why am I anonymous?
The women in Jennifer Baumgardner’s book are so brave and confident. I’m not quite there yet. I do tell some people about my abortion, if it’s relevant to a conversation I’m having. But because of the stigma that still exists, I haven’t yet told my family and I’m not sure if or how I’m going to do so — and I know that I don’t want to “tell them” in a newspaper that thousands of people read each week. So why tell my story at all, especially to run alongside this other, about a book that encourages openness and attempts to challenge the very stigma to which I’m falling prey? Because I believe that any narrative, even a nameless one, helps take away some of the mystery and shame associated with abortion. Because I want to remind people how the public political debate can sometimes have very personal ramifications. And because I’m committed to fighting this battle, even if it’s from the sidelines.
Related:
Obama and McCain: Repro Rights Checklist, Personally speaking, Unveiling the new (old) Planned Parenthood, More 
- Obama and McCain: Repro Rights Checklist
It’s important to know where our next president stands with regard to reproductive rights — and to remember that those rights depend on who’s in charge.
- Personally speaking
For decades, feminists have rallied behind the phrase “the personal is political,” meant to remind us that our personal lives are intrinsically affected by politics.
- Unveiling the new (old) Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood wants abortions for everyone! Well, not exactly.
- Parental discretionary donors
Polarizin’ Palin has people everywhere opening their pocketbooks to the pro-choice movement’s benefit.
- A black leadership silent on abortion fabrications
Last month, controversial anti-abortion-rights billboards appeared in Georgia hinting that abortion is a tool of black genocide.
- “A” list
Long-time abortion rights advocate Mary Ann Sorrentino didn’t write The A Word to change anyone’s pro-life stance.
- Quiet warfare
On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.
- Communion shouldn’t be based on politics
Catholic priests call themselves “vicars of Christ,” so those giving communion need only recall Christ’s forgiveness of a thief on an adjacent Calvary cross, and ask, “What would Jesus do?”
- Shifting sands
No matter what decisions are made by the courts, Congress, or state legislators, birth control and reproductive rights are at the nexus of public policy, individual privacy, health-care regulations, ethical arguments, religious beliefs, and morality
- Cover the boobs; leave the guns at home
Spring has barely started, and I was expecting a few of the usual seasonal assaults to the eyeballs.
- Controlling birth
Not surprisingly, I am searching for yet another birth control pill that doesn’t wreck my life.
- Less
Topics:
News Features
, Barack Obama, Culture and Lifestyle, Health and Fitness, More
, Barack Obama, Culture and Lifestyle, Health and Fitness, Medicine, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Birth Control, John McCain, Abortion, Abortion, Family, Less
