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

by Jessica Valenti

Anti-abortion groups know they don’t have science on their side, so this kind of fabricated evidence has become increasingly important to their work.

Anti-abortion groups aren’t just fabricating their own bad data; they’re attacking good, credible studies, and preventing the collection of data they don’t like.

Once you understand that abortion bans are just one tool in a much broader campaign to put women back in their place—and to strengthen white male control over everyone else—all the other, related Republican attacks make much more sense.

was just another article in just another paper, as if women being prevented from leaving their state is just another story. As if this were a normal occurrence.

What was once unthinkable is now commonplace—the Overton window shattered in thousands of pieces beneath the feet of Republicans and anti-abortion activists.

Can you imagine the outcry if a law restricted men’s ability to leave their state?

I don’t know what’s worse: dying in the darkness of a back alley, or in full view under fluorescent lights. They’re both tragic, but there’s something particularly cruel about the idea of dying while surrounded by those with the ability to save you.

The end of Roe came at a moment when physicians were being targeted with Covid-era misinformation.

One of the major reasons abortion deaths aren’t being reported is that activists and legal organizations are working hard to protect victims and their families, shielding them from the inevitable backlash should they go public.

The other reason we’re not hearing these stories is because Republican lawmakers and leaders have made it near-impossible for doctors to go public.

mainstream media outlets are too afraid to report plainly on what’s happening.

Doctors and medical students can’t get adequate training in anti-choice states. In states with bans, it’s illegal to learn how to perform an abortion even though such training is required in order to be an accredited ob-gyn (because abortion is healthcare!).

“The same states that are most likely to be restrictive are also states that have been providing minimal services for a long time to women.”

American racism will win out and people won’t care regardless.

This is about a group of people who believe women exist to give birth, and that anything we do that deviates from that expectation makes us unnatural—and ultimately expendable.

That’s why when feminists fight to make sure abortion remains legal and accessible, we’re not just fighting for “choice” or for our rights and our bodies—we’re fighting for our lives. I want to live in a country that sees women’s lives as valuable beyond their ability to have babies. But right now, it seems like that’s too much to ask.

To too many Americans—men especially—there is no story good enough and no woman or girl credible enough.

Abortion is a democracy issue, an economic issue, a workers’ rights and racism issue.

That’s why the people who would have abortion be illegal need to be put on the spot, whether they’re a U.S. senator or a city council member. And they need to answer more than just simple policy questions: they need to be confronted with the real-life impact of abortion bans and to be asked why, on a fundamental human level, they believe it’s reasonable to force someone to be pregnant.

was incredulous that they could betray other women with actual smiles on their faces.

When you codify the lie that our bodies are not our own, everything is on the table. And when you collaborate with men who believe you are fundamentally less than, and you throw other women under the bus, you can’t be surprised or hurt when your body gets run over along with the rest of us.

We all have the ability and the responsibility to do something: to remind people that we are not overreacting, we are not exaggerating and that what is happening right now is that bad and that it can absolutely get worse; to make sure people know the truth about abortion misinformation; to help people get care when they need it; to tell the truth about how pro-choice America really is; to hold our local media and politicians accountable.

Every abortion denied is a tragedy.

It’s vital that we remember and remind others that to force someone to be pregnant against their will, for any reason, at any point, causes profound existential harm. Abortion is healthcare, but it is also freedom.

We want to live in a country where a devastated woman who has received tragic news about her pregnancy doesn’t have to put her grief on hold for a week so she can find a doctor. A country where a teenager doesn’t have to convince a judge that she’s responsible enough not to have a baby. And yes, a country where someone who needs an abortion later in their pregnancy—for whatever reason—is able to get one.