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Ceritakan Kisahmu

My abortions defined my life choices for decades

1986 Vereinigte Staaten

I was “that” girl that everyone didn’t want to be friends with and having been raised in a very dysfunctional family where no love was expressed physically I validated myself by having sex with men. I was rejected by most men unless they wanted sex from me and I naively played with fire. I had my first abortion at age 22 and my second at age 23, both in clinics that I found in the phone book. I told no one, except for one person who knew me and my family situation. It took me decades to process what happened to me because I was unaware of how to get support and I didn’t feel safe revealing this to anyone. My career choices and educational goals were affected by both my abortions and I’ve never had a functional romantic relationship workout. The shame of having an abortion, combined with the lack of community and family support as well as constant denial of my emontions led me down a path of needing an outlet for my pain and anger-so I put my energies into sports. I had always been a gifted athlete and I spent my entire later 20’s getting a college degree and pursuing athletics. Society defines women as “good” or “bad” and in many countries not having children labels women as sinister, selfish beings. Personally, I don’t trust many women and most men enough to share my history and it takes a great deal of convincing to make me believe a person really would understand my experience or choices. It’s because most people are culturally conditioned to criticize everything women do, how they look and so forth. Now I am 54 and I’m invisible in most parts of society and nobody cares about my reproductivity anymore and all focus is on youth. My thoughts about the world—-I believe that education can create a strong, enlightened culture. We have the potential for a worldwide movement that can save the planet but unfortunately the daily news shows that we are heading in a direction and depleting our resources with reckless abandon, much like I did in my own life leading up to my abortions. I live a quite, monastic life now and am trying to decrease my carbon footprint in the hopes to balance out the overpopulation on our planet. Peace.

Both times were done in a clinic.

I did not want a child and both men told me they weren’t interested in a relationship with me.

Wie haben andere Menschen auf Ihre Abtreibung reagiert?

Rejected me socially and emotionally. I hid it as best as I could but it changed me deeply. I hated myself for years and never had children because of it.

Marghe

À la limite du délai légal, j'ai avorté à 18 ans et 1 mois. J'étais soutenue…

Lorelai

Basically I found out two weeks ago that I was pregnant, to my shock and awe…

Marie

I had an abortion. It's a choice I want available for every woman, for…

Lisa

I always thought I cannot be pregnant, as I was diagnosed with primal…

Cristina

No fue bueno pero fue lo mejor.

Catarina Fernando

Tenho 18 anos e os meus pais nunca iriam aceitar que eu tivesse um filho com…

Daniela

Tengo una hija de 4 años, pero aun asi yo aborte este año.

Tlhogi Tshegofaso

I did it when I was 4 weeks. Its was tremendously painful and horrific. The…

Emilia Aguilera

Tuve un embarazo inesperado y por una medicación que tomo de por vida, mi hijo…

Bee

I felt very guilty but relieved . I was way too young to be a mother.

Raquel

Perdón a mis angelitos!

Fernanda

Escrevo esse depoimento por intermédio do meu parceiro e por mim, que passamos…

mimi

mi aborto. siempre te voy a recordar pequeña semillita

Constanza

Bueno yo aborte por que no encontré otra salida...
A principios de diciembre del…

Lola

Mi decisión

Valentina

Le pedí que me dejara...

Me había embarazado antes y había abortado, desde ese…

Isabelle

Bom, estou escrevendo aqui pois os relatos de vocês que me deram forças. Eu não…

Maree

It was sad but necessary