Let’s Talk About My Abortion (and Yours)

[mystery-ak]

Opinion
Let’s Talk About My Abortion (and Yours)

By Cindi Leive

Ms. Leive is a former editor in chief of Glamour and Self.

    June 30, 2018

Several months ago, I appeared on a morning TV show alongside Cecile Richards, then the president of Planned Parenthood. Our topic had been women’s activism, and we’d both spoken in equal amounts. But when I checked Twitter later, the violent insults were flying only at Ms. Richards, with commenters calling her a “baby butcher” and “this puke bitch” for her support of abortion rights. None took aim at me — and as I read the stream, I felt more cowardly than I can ever remember, as if I were crouched in a foxhole while Ms. Richards took fire for the rest of us.

Why was I letting her take the heat? After all, I’d had an abortion myself.

No woman has an obligation to talk about her most personal decisions. The right to privacy, in fact, is the legal underpinning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that secures a woman’s right to choose. Still, that day I felt ashamed — not of my choice, which I have never regretted, but of my silence. The decision I made 30 years ago was perfectly legal. I’m a grown woman, with a family and a career I love. Why keep quiet?

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/opinion/sunday/abortion-kennedy-supreme-court.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

[Taxcontrol]

"Why keep quiet?"

Because deep down in your soul you know that you murdered an defenseless child of God..... and you know that you will have to answer for that sin.

[Oceander]

Why keep quiet?  Because the holy-rollers and high-and-mighties will attempt to beat you into submission for violating their religious beliefs.   

[WingNot]

Why keep quiet?  Because the holy-rollers and high-and-mighties will attempt to beat you into submission for violating their religious beliefs.

You got us figured out.  Your job is done. 

[corbe]

   I grew up with my second wife, she had 3, she never recovered from that from experience.
   I know it can be brutal to a Woman's Soul.

[Silver Pines]

Opinion
Let’s Talk About My Abortion (and Yours)

By Cindi Leive

Ms. Leive is a former editor in chief of Glamour and Self.

    June 30, 2018

Several months ago, I appeared on a morning TV show alongside Cecile Richards, then the president of Planned Parenthood. Our topic had been women’s activism, and we’d both spoken in equal amounts. But when I checked Twitter later, the violent insults were flying only at Ms. Richards, with commenters calling her a “baby butcher” and “this puke bitch” for her support of abortion rights. None took aim at me — and as I read the stream, I felt more cowardly than I can ever remember, as if I were crouched in a foxhole while Ms. Richards took fire for the rest of us.

Why was I letting her take the heat? After all, I’d had an abortion myself.

No woman has an obligation to talk about her most personal decisions. The right to privacy, in fact, is the legal underpinning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that secures a woman’s right to choose. Still, that day I felt ashamed — not of my choice, which I have never regretted, but of my silence. The decision I made 30 years ago was perfectly legal. I’m a grown woman, with a family and a career I love. Why keep quiet?

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/opinion/sunday/abortion-kennedy-supreme-court.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Yeah, whatever, let's get screamy and brag that we had abortions, and maybe if enough of us make enough noise we'll end up believing there's nothing wrong with it.

Btw, the Ali McGraw article is a study in cognitive dissonance.

[Silver Pines]

Why keep quiet?  Because the holy-rollers and high-and-mighties will attempt to beat you into submission for violating their religious beliefs.

@Oceander

Not me.  I'm a Christian, though God knows I'm not the world's best example of one.  A friend of mine had an abortion; her decision to tell me about it took a lot of courage.  She did it on the condition that we would never speak about it again; she's that tormented by it. 

I have compassion for women who are haunted by abortion.  I can do that while understanding it's the ending of a human life.  Not going to pretend otherwise. 

But women who want to get in peoples' faces with it, like one bitch I saw online who was laughing about going out to lunch to celebrate?  They get nothing from me.

[Silver Pines]

   I grew up with my second wife, she had 3, she never recovered from that from experience.
   I know it can be brutal to a Woman's Soul.

@corbe

I worked with a woman who had three, as well.  She wasn't able to have children as a result.

[Oceander]

@Oceander

Not me.  I'm a Christian, though God knows I'm not the world's best example of one.  A friend of mine had an abortion; her decision to tell me about it took a lot of courage.  She did it on the condition that we would never speak about it again; she's that tormented by it. 

I have compassion for women who are haunted by abortion.  I can do that while understanding it's the ending of a human life.  Not going to pretend otherwise. 

But women who want to get in peoples' faces with it, like one bitch I saw online who was laughing about going out to lunch to celebrate?  They get nothing from me.

I have no beef with you.  You seem to have approached it with her best interests at heart and to have given her what she needed at the time: someone to talk to. 

[corbe]

@corbe

I worked with a woman who had three, as well.  She wasn't able to have children as a result.

@CatherineofAragon

   She already had 2 kids she couldn't deal with, by the time we married in 82, her tubes were tied.  She's still not a happy camper but it is great to talk to her and see her from time to time each year.

[Silver Pines]

I have no beef with you.  You seem to have approached it with her best interests at heart and to have given her what she needed at the time: someone to talk to.

@Oceander

Thanks.  FWIW, even though we strongly disagree on this subject, I have to admit you have the ability to take on the crowd and keep your cool.

[Silver Pines]

@CatherineofAragon

   She already had 2 kids she couldn't deal with, by the time we married in 82, her tubes were tied.  She's still not a happy camper but it is great to talk to her and see her from time to time each year.

@corbe

Well, it's good that you're still on a friendly basis, you know?  I've seen the opposite happen a lot of times.

[corbe]

   8 years of Marriage, doing my best to raise her two young chillen certainly endears them all to my Heart, forever!

   *My avatar is a close facsimile of my BFF.

[Silver Pines]

   8 years of Marriage, doing my best to raise her two young chillen certainly endears them all to my Heart, forever!

   *My avatar is a close facsimile of my BFF.

@corbe

You're a good man.  And she's GORGEOUS.