I Love Abortion
The other day I heard a progressive political commentator I admire and respect get upset by someone saying the phrase, “I love abortion” as a punctuating sentiment to her support for the procedure being legal and accessible to all. It rubbed me the wrong way and I haven’t been able to stop thinking since.
The phrase “I Love Abortion,” and people’s reactions to it, encapsulates so many pieces of nuanced political and social constructs that surround abortion in the United States and beyond.
Through social media and getting more involved with organizations like SYA over the years, I’ve learned about the incredibly harmful stigma around abortion and the people who access the procedure. As I’ve seen more people discuss their abortions openly, and heard the wide variety of emotions of those who made the choice to have an abortion, I’ve learned that there are a bigillion reasons why people choose to have abortions and just as many emotions someone can have before and after they get an abortion.
But this nuance often gets lost when we talk about abortion. A lot of times, when I hear people in the public eye discussing why abortion needs to be safe, legal and accessible, there is this tinge of solumness that hovers over the conversation. Whatever they say in support of the right to choose is clouded by the icky stigmatized vibe of ‘this is a bad thing, but sometimes people need to do it.’
But abortion, a medical procedure that has been around as long as people have been getting pregnant, is not a bad thing. It can be made scary, heartbreaking and difficult based on the surrounding circumstances of a pregnancy, but that does not make the procedure generally, morally, or decisively a bad thing. Through first-person accounts I’ve read and heard from people who’ve had abortions, it can also be a relief, an affirmation.
Or a mixture of all the good and bad feelings we all experience on a regular basis. The point is, there’s not one valid response or emotion to feel!!!! It’s all valid and real, and there’s no reason we should cloud that with stigma based on historical precedents or people whispering for years that abortion is a shameful secret we should sweep under the rug.
Consistently framing abortion as a dark and depressing reality of being alive doesn’t adequately address the reality of why people have abortions.
When I say “I Love Abortion,” I am saying that I love and support people who have abortions for making a choice that feels best for them. I’m saying I celebrate the right to bodily autonomy. I’m saying no matter why you have an abortion, your choice is valid.
