The A Word

Stop being ashamed!
Stop avoiding the "a word" and get it out there!
Women should not be forced into a closet, or live under a shroud of shame for having an abortion!

Growing up I like to say my mother was pretty feminist minded as she was a single mother for a long time before I was welcomed into my family. As I got older she always encouraged me to be independent, make my own choices, and never let anyone make decision for me.
So when I got into high school, and started to become familiar with the topic of abortion, my mind was virtually already made up for me. A woman should be able to make her own reporductive choices.
Would I personally abort? Probably not, but the option being available to all women was something that I found important, especially in a day with so many “pro life” groups working against basic female human rights.

I became involved with the pro choice movement, volunteering with Planned Parenthood, standing on the corner with signs for burma shaves, and overall just being the radical my parents raised me to be. But the one thing I noticed in all my time working to ensure female reproductive rights remained a safe and legal option for all was the lack of politically correct talk about it.
There were very few and far between women that would step out and say “I had an abortion” and I look back, and even look at it today and wonder why it is still such a taboo topic over 40 years since this choice was made Nationally legal.

These thoughts re-surfaced this past week after the “Twitter Abortion” that had the typical pro life teeth showing and abomination talk flying. But what I noticed still was it is something that even the pro choice women do not wish to openly talk about. My mind is boggled.
Maybe it is just the type of pro choice advocates I am surrounded by today, which are typically those in the Birth Advocacy Community, or maybe it is still the stigma that talking about these experience is a “social no no” still.

Which I guess brings me to my message.
Women should not be ashamed of the choices that they make with their reproductive system.
Women are never ashamed to say “Oh I had a vaginal delivery” or “I had a Vaginal Birth after Cesarean” or even talk about their tubal or biopsy.

Stop being ashamed!
Stop avoiding the “a word” and get it out there!
Women should not be forced into a closet, or live under a shroud of shame for having an abortion!

SAY IT LADIES!

abortion….. Abortion….. ABORTION!