Mermaid Musings

An interesting article on the controversy surrounding post-abortion counseling in the ‘pro-choice’ movement. I do applaud these efforts to provide women with a non-judgmental and non-political space to talk about their abortion experiences. It is essential that we create these spaces in order to reduce the stigma around having an abortion. And let’s face it, contrary to what many anti-abortion folks would have us believe, most women to do not lightly choose to terminate a pregnancy. It’s about time we started giving women the space they need to talk about what the experience has meant for them -without any kind of expectations of how a woman should feel after having an abortion.

While I can certainly understand some of the nervousness around having ‘pro-choice’ organizations encourage women to speak publicly about their experiences, especially if they were in any way negative, I think it points to part of the failure of the pro-choice message: it doesn’t really consider the whole woman or the full range of women’s experiences. I don’t believe anyone has to be “pro-abortion” in order to believe that women have an absolute right to their own bodies and to make decisions about pregnancy. It points to the fallacy of such a polarized issue being defined by the two camps: pro-life v. pro-choice.

I have long maintained that I have no problem with anyone who believes abortion is a sin, as long as they don’t try to force that belief on me (or anyone else for that matter). The aforementioned article points out that 40% of the women in the country who seek abortions identify as Catholic or Christian, which in and of itself doesn’t mean they are necessarily opposed to abortions, but it’s a good guess that some of them would probably identify as ‘pro-life.’

In fact an interesting story from our local abortion clinic: last year a woman who actually posed with her daughter for a pro-life poster needed an abortion. She wrote a letter to the clinic thanking them for the great service and care she received and apologized for her past protesting. She realized now, what it gift it was to have access to safe, compassionate and skilled care when she was faced with an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy.

I am excited to see both a national and a local organization take on the complexity of women’s experience with abortion. The politics and polarization around abortion have become old and tired. It is real women sharing their stories, speaking out publicly and forcing this nation to start dealing with complexity instead of in sound bytes who are going to shift the struggle for reproductive justice. Because the issue of abortion is about life: it is about the lives of women and the rights of women to live.