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
thats funny @guest who says you were too poor to keep a baby but you kept your cat. Nice!
I don't know why we continue to debate this. I will NEVER, EVER agree with you pro-lifers or people like Shirley. And you pro-lifers and people like Shirley will most likely never agree with pro-choicers. In my case, as pro-choice, I may not like what you choose but I'm not trying to tell you what to do with YOUR body. I don't understand why pro-lifers think they can tell a woman what to do with her body. Why must others follow YOUR morals???? Who deemed how you feel to be correct?? No one. If you are against abortion, don't have one, but STOP trying to control other people. This is not a damn dictatoriship, thank the lord. Most pro-lifers are doing absolutely nothing to help out all of the children that ALREADY HERE and don't have parents!!! It's infurating! Most of you people only care about the child until it is born and making sure it gets to that point and then its like, ok, onto the next woman we can bully into doing what we feel is right.
Also, how many women do you think report that they are raped at their abortion? Most women don't EVER admitt they are raped to anyone but people they trust, so I really don't believe statistics. I will never put too much emphasis on statistics that are based on human beings being honest because most aren't for whatever reason.