Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win

by Jessica Valenti

After all, if this wasn’t about power, control, and punishment, why would some women be “allowed” abortions when they’re raped?

What’s more: Abortion creates lives. Ask your friends and family how their abortions changed them. Ask what they were able to do, what path they were able to take, because they had the freedom to end a pregnancy when they needed to.

Those who would see abortion banned like to pose hypotheticals about the remarkable baby a woman could have if she just didn’t get an abortion: What if they cured cancer? Rarely, if ever, does anyone ask if that woman herself might change the world.

And that leads to the final, most insidious reason the anti-abortion movement opposes abortion medication. The pills robbed them of their favorite pastime: harassing women at clinics.

anti-choice

Using this from now on

In 2018 only 28 percent of Americans supported abortion in the second trimester—but now 37 percent do. And while 13 percent of voters in 2018 supported abortion in the third trimester, now 22 percent do.

Journalists favoring “balance” over truth have painted abortion as divisive instead of popular, and have given equal weight to those who oppose abortion—even as their position has become more and more out of step with public opinion.

That’s why I don’t waste time “debating” people about abortion. Yes, it’s partly because I think it’s beneath me: I shouldn’t have to convince someone of my humanity.

They’re afraid of us. The good news is, they should be.