# @shoutyourabortion on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CDl-5fTJ73T
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34221418-shoutyourabortion-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5bd3bd5adf.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-08-07T15:41:10.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Shout Your Abortion (@shoutyourabortion) — https://gondola.cc/shoutyourabortion

## Caption

“…I was pregnant, I didn’t want to be pregnant, and I wanted to end the pregnancy as soon as possible.  I had great clarity on that.  It was a moment in the tortured history of abortion when abortion was safe, legal, and, at least where I lived, fairly uncontroversial.  Imagine.  You do need to imagine because that moment didn’t last long.

…When I was in college abortion was illegal.  I had heard the stories from friends about their illegal abortions. Some had gone well, discreetly done in a swanky doctor’s office.  Others done in shame and secrecy and risk with some women not surviving the ordeal intact.  A friend who loved children and longed to have them was made sterile from her back street abortion.  I feel sure that loss has been with her all these years.  It never goes away.

My abortion, which happened less than a decade later, was a trip to a clinic, an out-patient procedure, and a taking it easy for the rest of the day.  My partner came with me to the clinic, drove me home, put me to bed, and brought me ice cream.  I was greatly relieved and a little sad.  About six months later, after I had moved away, and after my partner and I had parted company, we got together again for an evening.  For the first time we talked about how we felt about the abortion.  He felt OK talking about what he went through because it no longer had to be just about my welfare.  I felt OK talking about the ambivalence I couldn’t entertain when I was so focused on terminating the pregnancy.  We cried a bit about what could have been.  We never doubted that the decision I made was the right one, but we still grieved about the loss.  I can’t really explain that, it’s just what happened.
Postscript: Both of us went on to become parents; he, two boys, me a girl.  We had our children when it was the right time for each of us.  As it should be, and as I hope it might someday be for all prospective parents.”

Visit our stories or the URL on the graphic to read the full story at our website. 💚 #shoutyourabortion #abortion #proaboetion #abortolegalya💚

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- **Likes:** 390
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## Tags

abortolegalya, shoutyourabortion, abortion, proaboetion

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