As I said in the Rita Moreno story, there is already an ongoing effort for women to tell their abortion stories as a way of normalizing those conversations and, hopefully, changing hearts and minds. This is what happened before Roe as well, when there was already a movement in the 1960s and 1970s to legalize abortion. There were congressional hearings and everyday women spoke publicly about their abortions and why they made those choices. Laura Prepon decided to share her story in a simple Instagram post:
One of the worst days of my life was when I made the choice to terminate a pregnancy in the second trimester. The devastating truth is that we found out the fetus would not survive to full term, and that my life was at risk as well. At the time – I had the choice.
Everyone has their own story for seeking out this medical procedure and I empathize with anyone who’s been faced with this impossible decision. I am praying for all of us, that we can get through this challenging time and regain agency over our own bodies.
It feels like we’re talking to a brick wall though, doesn’t it? Is this kind of story getting through? Are Republican governors listening to the fact that this too is what they’re destroying? That women will die because they can’t get this kind of abortion, to save the life of the mother when the pregnancy is nonviable? The Republican governors, senators and congressmen don’t want to get it. They simply don’t care that women will die.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Laura Prepon attends the Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” Season 5 NYC Premiere Party on June 9, 2017 at Catch in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 512927305, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Robin Platzer/Twin Images / Avalon
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- 157920, Laura Prepon at ‘The Girl On The Train’ New York Premiere at Regal E-Walk Stadium 13. New York City, New York – Tuesday October 4, 2016. Photograph: © Guillermo, PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Photoshot): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000,Image: 534422623, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Guillermo, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Laura Prepon attends the Netflix show “Orange is the New Black” -Final Season Premiere on July 25, 2019 at Alice Tully Hall in New York, New York, USA. photo by Robin Platzer/ Twin Images/ Avalon,Image: 536737875, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Robin Platzer/Twin Images / Avalon
Someone told me a story similar to this yesterday and it left me in tears. So many women are going to die because they no longer have this option and it’s absolutely tragic and infuriating that the “pro-lifers” seem to think it all boils down to some simplistic stereotype of a “slutty” woman using it as lackadaisical birth control. Not one woman I know whose had an abortion went into it lightly. I’m so upset.
Totally.
“They simply don’t care that women will die.”
Period.
At best, they feed on these stories, they fuel their self righteousness. If they cared, if they were capable of human empathy, we’d never be in this position.
Yeah they don’t care. They really don’t care that people will die and they already knew that but still fought for this. It’s just about control.
Plus you have people out there legit saying that a woman’s body can somehow prevent getting pregnant after being raped, this was literally talked about days ago with someone running for congress agreeing. You also have people that think you can remove an ectopic pregnancy and re implant it. People, who are NOT medical professionals, are just out here straight up lying and their followers are taking it as fact because it’s what they want to hear or comes from their political party and people are going to die because of it.
One of the other things I’ve been thinking about is that you hear about boyfriends or husbands killing their pregnant partners because they didn’t want to have a baby and this was going on while abortion was still an option. How much worse will it get.
Homicide is started to be the number one cause of death for pregnant women. Usually by the child’s father. This is about to get very ugly very quickly.
Yes. I have a friend who aborted her first baby because her husband at the time threatened her.
I’m just so scared now- even scared about the sharing of our experiences- will our own words be weaponized against us later? Maybe it’s why they want, is us to be so scared we freeze up. The ‘they’ don’t care, they want people to die. They are worried about their domestic supplies of white babies and reducing the surplus population bs.
They hate women so much that they want them to die. Period.
It’s not about abortion. It’s never been about abortion. It’s about manipulating ignorant white people into mobilizing against POC, full stop. Women of all races are a casualty of this. But poor (and rich) whites have to feel like they’re better than POC of every social strata or the Republicans lose power and wealth. And they’ll kill you before they let that happen. It’s no coincidence that THREE Bush v Gore Republican jurists got rewarded with places on the Supreme Court and right after traitors stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Everybody, wake up!
Until we start accepting this truth, we cannot win. Ever.
**All Of This.** It’s about getting uneducated white people to vote against their own best interests. But why can’t one of these fools pick up a Bible and read what it actually says? Yes, the Bible should be irrelevant to our political process, but also it doesn’t justify banning abortion. I was raised in a very liberal religious tradition that taught us abortion was acceptable when it would hurt the mother, meaning medically or socially. That was based on actual passages from the Bible. Now, I think that’s crap. A woman shouldn’t need to justify it to a religious panel, but the point stands that banning abortion is not and has never been about religion.
Yup.
I cannot believe the US has come to this. In India, most women and girls who have been raped and get pregnant as a result are routinely denied abortions. In Brazil, an 11 year old girl was recently denied an abortion by a judge — there was such a public outcry that she finally got it. Many third world countries have deeply entrenched patriarchal societies which, by definition, describe cultures in which males as fathers or husbands are assumed to be in charge and the official heads of households while women are generally treated like chattel. I never thought America would regress to this type of society, but it has. I applaud women like Laura Prepon who are speaking publicly about their own abortions and how necessary it is for a woman’s mental, physical and emotional health to have agency over their own bodies.
Sorry but what you say about India is not true. Abortion is legal since the 70s.
Legal does not mean there is access to it.
Legal in name only. The abortion rate in India is shockingly low, approximately 47 per 1,000 women aged 15–49, and rapists get off with a slap on the wrist most of the time.
They aren’t listening. They’re listening instead to the Ben Shapiros who are screaming about people deciding to terminate a healthy pregnancy a day before due date, which is NOT happening anywhere. And they claim that less than 1% of abortions are for the life of the mother because of that damn Guttmacher Study, which is not verifiable healthcare data.
When I began treatment for cancer, I was told the treatments cause infertility but I would be alive.. BUT before the infertility happened, the treatments would cause increased fertility so I was at very high risk of getting pregnant before that part of the body closed up shop (as Jane Fonda describes it) If I got pregnant, the law required that all treatment pause until I was no longer pregnant. It was explained to be very careful that my cancer was highly aggressive, which I knew, and pausing treatment even for a very short time, would allow the cancer to spread and my body would focus on nourishing the pregnancy instead of fighting the cancer. The pregnancy itself would never be a “baby” because of the damage the chemo I had already had would have caused to the cells. It would never be viable but would likely kill me before second trimester if not terminated immediately. Thankfully, I never faced that dilemma but a woman who sat next to me every week during chemo did. At the most stressful time in her life, battling a deadly disease, her mother was telling her that if they just prayed hard enough, she would deliver a miracle baby and that if she didn’t survive, well, they would raise her baby. The oncologist had to bring the whole family in and tell them in no uncertain terms that there would be no miracle, there would be no miracle baby, and she would die. She got the procedure, her mother-in-law took her but her parents and siblings were not supportive of her through the rest of her treatment.
Women are going to die. Women are already dying. And they don’t care.
Shapiro’s wife is an OBGYN, she knows damn well people aren’t having a D&X of healthy fetus, let alone one so late in term that it could be delivered alive. Since she knows that, you know damn well he knows it as well. He has to make up salacious lies because, while he loves to play Frum Yid as an Orthodox Jew, his political beliefs on this issue run counter to Jewish doctrine and he knows he’d be pilloried even worse if he made claims on how abortion was wrong in cases of health issues (the Jewish doctrine of Pikua Nefesh actually says that in cases where the mother’s life is in jeopardy, an abortion should be performed. My Orthodox grandmother’s Rabbi reminded her of that when her OB recommended her last pregnancy be terminated ands had her abortion in the early 1930s)
It’s a con. He’s just a shill for antisemitic Christofascists.
I had a D & C because of a non viable pregnancy. I asked the doctor what would have happened if I didn’t do it and she said I would have hemorrhaged and bled to death.
I don’t care whatever a women’s reason is (viable/not viable), this loss of bodily autonomy enrages me so much.
And yes, women are going to die.
Ok, now I’m confused. I thought abortion was illegal for viable pregnancies only, not for a D&C for a non viable fetus. This (D&C) is only to remove deceased products of conception and should not be defined as abortion. If it is we’re in a lot more trouble than I thought.
Abortion is a medical term and includes miscarriage and stillbirth.
A D&C is considered an abortion, even if it’s a miscarriage. It was what was used prior to the pills. I had a D&C after a miscarriage and it was coded as an abortion. (I would’ve got one regardless in that case, for what it’s worth)
I really cannot believe we live in this age. It’s so heartbreaking. I am reminded of the time my mother had to get an abortion because of an ectopic pregnancy. We were already three kids, and we were on holiday when my mom found out. I cannot even think had she not had access to an abortion, she could have died and left 3 kids behind. These people who overturned Roe vs wade do not care about children or women or life. This is the reality they want.
I had a D&C 10 weeks after i gave birth because not all of my placenta came out and it was still causing bleeding. So its not always an abortion, or shouldnt be considered so.
I appreciate people telling their stories, because it does normalize conversation about a routine procedure, but:
1. No one should feel like they have to do this because of the position our country is in.
2. The ONLY reason anyone needs to get an abortion is: I don’t want to be pregnant anymore.
While I agree that no one needs a reason, abortion is a required medical procedure for many women. I think it’s important to amplify that conversation.
I would likely miscarry due to severe endometriosis and uterine fibroids. While I’ve been diagnosed with infertility, it’s not an exact science. A hemorrhage is a very real possibility along with a D & C or abortion if I were to become pregnant.
Abortion is healthcare.
I agree that no one needs a reason to have an abortion as it is inhumane to forcibly make someone go through birth if this is not what they want. I thibk why people are bringing up other reasons is because it is actually endangering women mortally if they do not even have access to one. It is a required procedure in many cases and I shudder to think what would happen to women all around. All I can imagine is many more deaths will happen. You can’t ban abortions, you can only ban unsafe abortions.
Gop officials may not care but hopefully voters will be listening. Some may be neutral on the issue because it doesn’t affect them. It would be nice if that didn’t matter but we’re far from a perfect world. Stories like these can put a face to the issue. Make it real.
This isn’t about abortion. It’s about control. Next on the chopping block: contraception (since life starts at fertilization). After that, gay rights. Then desegregation. From there….well, the sky’s the limit! Hallelujah,.praise God and pass the ammunition YEE HAW