Today— on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade— and every day since, I am thankful for my abortion. I never thought I would be sharing this gratitude, but in 2022, when SCOTUS’s draft of a decision to overturn Roe was leaked, I made choice to share my abortion story (link below).
May 3, 2022
Before I clicked the “publish” button, I was terrified— to be honest, I still have moments of anxiety, worries about what it means that my story is “out there”— but I never anticipated the incredible response I received. Women saw themselves mirrored in my words, and shared their own stories with me. I heard from acquaintances, friends— hell, even family. It blew my mind, to hear from a relative I have known literally all of my life, a woman with whom I’ve had real and challenging conversations in the past, share her experience. Why hadn’t we shared like this before? I wondered. Could we have supported each other differently? Would it have helped me feel less alone in my own experience? Like all the “woulda, coulda, shoulda’s,” I’d never know, but we were talking now, and it was…
Powerful. Humbling. Fortifying. Tender.
It was magic.
Sharing my truth was, for me, one of the incredible highlights of 2022, a beautiful moment to come from abject tragedy. Because that is what the overturning of Roe has been— a tragedy. As Betty Friedan stated in 1969, “there is no freedom, no equality, no full human dignity and personhood possible for women until we assert and demand the control over our own bodies, over our own reproductive process,” and to see the work of generations undone by the radical right has been devastating.
I have not experienced one moment of regret since my abortion, only relief and gratitude. To know that the privilege of autonomy that I held, however fragile, will not be extended to others breaks my heart, but it also galvanizes me— I hear the call to speak up, to fight back, to persist, to aid and abet abortion, and to fight for the rights and autonomy of all.
And since I shared my story— since we shared our stories— I know how many are by my side.
DONATE TO THE NATIONAL NETWORK OF ABORTION FUNDS! CLICK HERE…
