TV presenter Katie Newman became the last high-profile woman to make public her experience of abortion, as the possibility of the US Supreme Court overturning Rowe v. Wade provoked a provocative test.
Posting on Twitter on Thursday, the Channel 4 News presenter wrote that she was sad that she had an abortion, but “she did not regret it for a second.”
“Every woman – here in America and around the world – must have that choice,” Newman said.
Ever since Judge Samuel Alito’s draft opinion expired at Politico on May 2, expressing his conviction that the landmark 1973 decision guaranteeing the right to abortion was “extremely wrong from the start”, women have been talking about their own terminations.
On Tuesday, American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers tweeted: “I had an abortion last October while touring. I went to planned parenting, where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves such access. “
New York Attorney General Leticia James speaks at a rally in support of abortion rights in New York, May 2022. Photo: Jason DeCrow / AP
In Manhattan, New York Attorney General Leticia James told a crowd of protesters that she “proudly entered Planned Parenthood” for her abortion – and I don’t apologize to anyone. To no one. “Describing himself as a woman of faith, James told the rally,” My God says you have to make the best decision for yourself and your life. “
Writing in the Independent, Newman said Alito’s expired decision brought back “one of the most difficult times for [her] life ”after she and her husband said more than 15 years ago that the baby she was carrying had a severe abnormality and was unlikely to survive.
While many women have chosen to emphasize their relief at the possibility of terminating their pregnancies, Newman describes the experience as “devastating.” But, she said, although the decision was difficult, it was right: “There is no day to regret it,” she wrote.
Katie Newman publicly announced her experience of abortion on Thursday. Photo: Alecsandra Raluca Drăgoi / The Guardian
More women are talking now. American podcast host Michaela Auckland told her 296,000 followers on Twitter that she had an abortion at the age of 19, but never felt comfortable talking about it online. “People have horrible opinions on the subject, and even now I’m afraid to talk about it,” she said.
Despite the stigma, women around the world have also become public. Under the hashtags #Myabortionstory and #ihadanabortion, Twitter users recalled their experiences of terminating a pregnancy.
“I hope this starts,” one wrote. “I was in a very forced marriage when I found out I was pregnant. I made the difficult choice to interrupt. I would never abandon my abuser if I had a child. I do not regret. This should be a legal and safe option for every woman. “
Ej Dickson, a Rolling Stone writer, said: “I’ve never shared this here, but fuck it: I had an abortion. I have one child too, and I am currently expecting another. To be honest, I had incredibly complex feelings about both choices. But I have never felt anything but deep gratitude that I * had * a choice. “
A student writes that five months after her doctorate, she had an abortion, knowing that she could not maintain her academic standards and given the child that she already had the same opportunities.
“People rightly express sympathy for women who choose to have an abortion for medical reasons,” she wrote. “It wasn’t me. I was faced with the reality of my economy class and career aspirations. If love was a currency, I could give it in excess … but that’s not the case. “
The wave of testimony is not the first to be provoked by changes in the US legal landscape. Last year, when Texas passed its almost complete abortion ban, actor Uma Thurman revealed how she terminated her pregnancy when she was a teenager. Although [it was] “The hardest decision of my life,” she writes, “the choice not to keep this early pregnancy allowed me to grow up to be the mother I wanted and needed to be.”
In 2020, after the death of Ruth Bader, Ginsberg left a seat on the Supreme Court vacant for Donald Trump candidate Amy Connie Barrett, Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Knicks said she had an abortion in 1979.
“If I hadn’t had this abortion, I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be a Fleetwood Mac,” she told the Guardian. “There is simply no way I can have a child then, working as hard as we worked all the time. And there were a lot of drugs, I used a lot of drugs, I had to get rid of them. “
Stevie Knicks spoke to the Guardian about his decision to have an abortion in 1979, in 2020. Photo: Samir Hussein / Redferns
In 2019, after the state of Georgia passed its “heart rate bill” banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, British actor Jamila Jamil wrote on Twitter:
“I had an abortion when I was young and it was the best decision I made. Both for me and for the baby I didn’t want and wasn’t ready for emotionally, psychologically and financially. So many children will end up in foster homes. So many ruined lives. So very cruel. ”
Georgia’s 2019 law was finally blocked the following year by a federal judge who found it violated the U.S. Constitution. In his ruling, Steve Jones cited precedents, including Rowe v. Wade and later the Supreme Court ruling, Casey v. Planned parenting. Both decisions, according to a document expired this week, “must be overturned”.
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