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
just because you post about having an abortion doesnt make you brave. I still don't believe in abortion and never will no matter what anyone says. of course its gonna look like blood, doctors are not going to show you the real thing. It may look like only a little bit of blood in the beginning, but people do get an abortion when the baby is 24 weeks or more so it is an actual fetus. I am also a photographer and I would never take pictures of something so demeaning. If you get pregnant and you cant take care of the baby, dont get an abortion choose adoption!!
but people do get an abortion when the baby is 24 weeks or more so it is an actual fetus.
People don't get abortions after 24 weeks...not here in the US, anyway. Babies can be born at 24 weeks and survive so any "abortion" at that point would be because one of the lives was in danger and they had to deliver early, the baby had already died, or they discovered a severe birth defect.
Keep in mind she never states WHY she had an abortion but your criticism says more about those of you who so willingly attack without knowing all the facts than it says about her actions.
Well said, connie. I just thought that needed to be repeated. ^^^
If you do not want to raise a kid or cant afford to raise a kid you SHOULD NOT be having unprotected sex. The lady that posted that she was struggling to make ends meet and could hardly feed herself and cat, really?? Keep a cat but not a child.
I had a child with an unfit father. I told him to leave and i worked as hard as i had to to support me and my children.
Its simple if you dont want a child GET YOURSELF FIXED!!!. IF you can afford to get an abortion or two you might as well just get your tubes clipped!
My first baby died, at just over 20 weeks gestation, as a result of my ex-husband kicking me in the stomach. At just over 20 weeks gestation, I was right around the gestational period in which pregnancies are legally terminated in many states. I was given Pitosin to induce labor after the baby died in utero. After going through childbirth, I held in my hands a very tiny little boy...my ONLY little boy (I have four daughters). He was perfect in every way, a tiny little person. He had legs, arms, all of his fingers and toes, eyes, ears, lips, nose. He WAS a tiny little person before my ex-husband killed him. It was determined that my ex should be tried for teticide. If that perfect little stillborn person wasn't considered a baby, why would my ex have been charged with feticide?