It's finally happened. A woman has blogged her abortion. Some will call it crazy. Some will call it pathetic. Some will call it ... wait, I don't care what they'll call it. Because I'm going to call it brave. I'm going to call it important.
The anonymous woman behind This Is My Abortion has just four simple photographs atop the sole post on her site. They're the only photos she needs. Because not one looks like the photos of fully formed babies with fingers, legs, eyelashes that you'll see held high by anti-choicers outside of any abortion clinic.
These photos are shocking and even a little gross, but they have on their side what the anti-choice crowd does not.
Truth.
The glass beakers with frothy red liquid at the base show what really comes out of a woman when she's 6 weeks pregnant and decides she does not wish to remain that way.
This woman, who tells us in an op-ed about the abortion blog for The Guardian that she is a photographer by trade, did nothing more than share what was. It's not what the anti-choice crowd wants to see. But it is what is.
I drive by a billboard often that features a drawing that looks like my daughter did when she came out of me. It's not a beaker of blood. It's a fully formed fetus.
It tells me I should be "glad" that my mother chose "life." Ironic. She also chose to "get pregnant." Abortion was never on the table for her to begin with. But the billboards don't make that distinction, do they? It's standard practice for the anti-choicers to peddle in half-truths.
A woman can choose "life," they say. A woman who gets an abortion "kills" a baby. And yet, look inside the glass beakers on This Is My Abortion. There's no baby there. You do not see anything like that fully formed fetus on that billboard. In fact, what is in those beakers is less than what comes out of the uterus on the standard day for a lady who tends to have heavy periods.
This Is My Abortion is important because it's the truth. It's not a big, flashy billboard. It doesn't have a pithy saying. It doesn't stand outside a clinic screaming and making women feel guilty for their choice.
It doesn't have to.
Because it's truth. The photos do as the cliche says -- speak a thousand words. Among them: Simple. Powerful. Brave.
Just take a look ...
What do you make of "Jane's" powerful blog?
Image via AlexandraLee/Flickr
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Comments 378
Jespren, I'm not sure how to respond to your comment...but I assure you all that comes out during an early pregnancy medical abortion (pill) is nothing more than a heavy period. There are no body parts. Please read a book on pregnancy.
Arguments aside, I still think this was a terrible idea and even insulting to those who have been trying to conceive and can't.
*in poor taste, not I. Iphones.
I love it. She's proven her point very well -- that women who choose to abort responsibly, and do so early in the pregnancy, are not baby-killers because there's no baby.
Is it possible to donate money to her blog?
Sad... I've known many women who've lost a baby at 6 weeks to a miscarriage. Wasn't just a lump of cells to them- pure devastation. They mourn the little baby they would have brought into this world. There is nothing brave about reminding people how little a 6 week old embryo is- they still have worth and still COULD be loved if the woman was brave enough to do so.
Abortion isn't about choice- it is about convenience. VERY few abortions come about because of tragic medical decisions that women must deal with... the vast majority are from women who just choose to rid themselves of a child due to convenience. No matter how many times you try to explain that, yes they have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies- it will never be ok in my opinion.
THANK YOU HISTORYMAMA!!!!
not brave at all sad sad state when people proudly show their murdering deeds. People seriously need Jesus
"She also chose to "get pregnant." Abortion was never on the table for her to begin with."
This is the crux of the Abortion Debate for me, and for many others. SO many women today are presented with the view that sex is a "right" and they should be able to do it anytime, anywhere, with no thought of responsibility, because abortion is readily available. Didn't use a condom? No problem, get an abortion. Not on the pill? No problem, abort it. Abortion is seen as a safe and viable form of birth control, and it is NOT.
The problem that exists is one that seems perpetuated in this blog and in the overarching "Pro-Choice" movement - that abortions are as safe as a condom, should be as normal, and should just be accepted as part of life. There is a harder push to keep abortions inexpensive and readily available than there is to teach young girls about their Menstrual Cycle, how to count days, how to truly avoid becoming pregnant, and how their cycle can tell them so much about the rest of their bodies. It's a "keep them ignorant" mentality. Screaming "that's religion" whenever anyone suggests abstaining from sex for what, a week? Ten days? out of a month, rather than teaching personal responsibility.
Perhaps if everyone quit with the rhetoric ("anti-choice" - you have a choice. Don't have sex) and stuck with the facts - on BOTH sides - we'd have more responsibility and far fewer abortions. Because abortion IS the taking of a life. There's no way around that fact.