abortion? not such a big deal after all...

[yorgatron]

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0511/050316_news_abortion.php





Before a standing-room-only crowd of mostly young women last week, at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, a onetime "Riot Grrrl" named Hannah Levin was talking about an abortion she had nine years ago. Wearing a jean skirt and a tattoo, seeming as sassy and funny as the abortion doctor she described, Levin recalled a virtually pain-and guilt-free abortion that contradicted all she had heard about risks and emotional turmoil. "I felt downright angry that I had spent so many hours being anxious, depressed, and afraid," she said, reading from an essay she had written. "Since then, I've combated that reality the only way I know how: without apology, without shame, and"—here, she slowed to a defiant staccato—"without . . . one . . . ounce . . . of . . . regret." The crowd went wild.

[LynnTheDem]

1. To many it is; to many it isn't.

Which is one of the many reasons I'm pro-CHOICE.

[Warpy]

2. Reagan's surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, was commissioned

to do a study of abortion recipients that the administration insisted would turn up long lasting tales of regret, anguish and depression.

Reagan didn't count on an honest SG, and Koop releasted his report detailing the fact that every woman who made the decision for hereself without being bullied into it by parents or partners reported nothing but a feeling of relief. Among the group who had been bullied into abortions, few felt long lasting regret.

That hasn't stopped the religous nutjobs out there from pushing the notion that women who have abortions are twisted with angst and regret for the rest of their lives, lives cut short by inevitable breast cancer (another "study" that has been throroughly repudiated).

The group the religious liars ARE describing, however, is birth mothers who surrendered infants in closed adoptions.

They'll never admit it, though.

[CAG]

3. Okay, one person not having a bad expericnce with an abortion...

will just change my neandrathal mind that maybe alot of others do have personal problems with abortion.

I'm sorry, I'm just venting because this is the second thread today I've read where I've basically been told I'm not pro-choice enough because I personally feel having an abortion is a bad choice, I just don't want to force my beliefs on other peoples bodies or have a government of good-ol' white rich men telling people what to do with their bodies.

[uppityperson]

4. You can chose to not have abortion, others might chose differently

And this is the problem, as you say: "I just don't want to force my beliefs on other peoples bodies or have a government of good-ol' white rich men telling people what to do with their bodies." This is what is means to be pro-choice, not that you would chose an abortion, but that the gvt should not tell people what to do with their bodies.

And I know of many women who have had abortions, been ok with it, and later on gone on to have babies, or been childless by choice. For every horror story, I could counter with a WTF is the big deal story. This goes for the morning after pill also. And no, I do not do abortions but have been associated with Family Planning for 25 yrs.

[gollygee]

5. Who said you weren't pro-choice enough?

that's plenty pro-choice. You choose for you and let others choose for themselves.

I think this article is just showing another side of the story. There are people who regret having abortions, and there are people who are glad they had abortions. If you feel that way, then an abortion probably *would* be a bad choice for you. But it just isn't the same for the women in the article.

[ultraist]

6. So what it doesn't change how you personally feel

That's not the point. The point is to reveal the fact that most women do not feel shameful or regretful about having an abortion.

I'm glad this woman is out there speaking about her personal feelings on this. It lifts the veil of shame.

You are entitled to your personal feelings about it. But you are not entitled to skew the facts. Study after study have shown, that most women do not feel regretful, post abortion.

[charlie]

7. Reading way too much into it

It's just pushback against so-called conventional wisdom that abortions invariably cause emotional scarring. No judgments about you or whether you're "pro-choice enough."

[LynnTheDem]

8. Your not wanting to force your personal beliefs on others

is EXACTLY what being pro-choice is, so screw anyone who says you're not pro-choice enough.

[MsMagnificent]

9. I'm Pro-Choice, yet

I would never have an abortion. Why? I simply just could not do that, I'd take whatever hardships. But that is JUST ME.

So why Pro-Choice? Because I do not want the thousands of deaths of women from back alley, coat hanger abortions; which will surely occur if it is not legal.
It would be an epidemic.

Additionally, my proclamation over never having an abortion does not put me in the position to therefore proclaim that nobody ever should.

It's a very hard decision, not to be taken lightly. We Dem's don't revel in terminating a fetus, contrary to Freeper opinion; but we DO know what the alternative is, and it is untenable.

I'm happy for her if that grrl is guilt free, but I think it may seriously impact many more women than not. She is not a wise, correct or popular Poster Child for Pro-Choice, nor does her glee become the Democratic Party and its stance, if I may so opine.

[DoNotRefill]

10. Some people have problems with it, some don't....

but all must be free to make the decision THEMSELVES, without the interference of Church OR State.