‘Our Abortion Stories’ chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.)
Tag: Our Abortion Stories
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. A new Ms. series, Our Abortion Stories, chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls.
The fall of Roe will strain abortion access nationwide. We cannot, we must not, lose the right to safe and accessible abortion or access to birth control. Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.
Our Abortion Stories: ‘Please, God. Please Make Me Not Pregnant.’
‘Our Abortion Stories’ chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.)
“It’s a choice every girl and woman deserves to have. Having that choice saved my life.”
“I no longer feel shame. What I feel now is anger, anger at a system that hates and punishes those who choose what to do with their bodies. No one should ever have to have an illegal abortion. No man, or woman who parrots men, should decide that for us.”
Daring to Remember: Tell Us Your Abortion Story
We must remind the country what a nation without any safe, legal abortion access looks like. We must remind our lawmakers what women’s lives without abortion access look like—and the devastating ways in which an end to abortion access is an end to our freedom. We are fighting for Roe with our own stories. We are daring to remember.
Submit your story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com
Our Abortion Stories: ‘He Said if I Got Pregnant, He’d Marry Me. I Got Pregnant. He Left.’
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. We’re chronicling readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe.
“I had just told my husband that I was leaving him when I got the news that I was pregnant. At the time, I already had two daughters under the age of six. I was figuring out how I was going to be a single mother with a demanding job that paid very little. … I don’t think we would’ve turned out with the lives we now have if there had been another mouth to feed. Nor, frankly, should I have to explain myself or my situation to anyone.”
Our Abortion Stories: ‘If He Had Found Out I Was Pregnant, He Would Have Kidnapped Me and the Baby’
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. We’re chronicling readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. “There is no room for inaction. If not for yourself, speak out for others.”
“Eliminating women’s reproductive healthcare rights doesn’t eliminate unplanned fetuses. It gives birth to unwanted children. Forcing women to give birth to unwanted children creates dependence on others. Both mother and child have little chance of climbing out of poverty on their own.”
Our Abortion Stories: Shamed Into Silence, ‘We Weren’t Fit To Become Mothers’
I was forced to give my son up for adoption, moments after giving birth. Boom. Gone. Just like that. I had no hope of ever seeing him again.
This shameful secret—my pregnancy and loss of my child—festered inside for more than 50 years. Decades later, my middle-aged son reached out by email and we met, a longed-for experience that soon turned into a nightmare. I had no idea that reunion in adoption is often shattering. The pain and anguish I wasn’t allowed to feel when I gave him away exploded inside me.
Our Abortion Stories: ‘The Justices Who Signed the Dobbs Opinion Do Not Care About 14-Year-Old Me’
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. We’re chronicling readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe.
“Even a medically safe abortion cannot be truly safe if it is illegal and shrouded in secrecy.”
Our Abortion Stories: Red Stain on a Yellow Dress
“Serena’s going back to Maggie’s Farm but not for long. Where, after that, she doesn’t know, but it does not seem to matter. Because she knows now that it is over. Soon she will stop bleeding. She can go on with her life.”
In 2021, writer Julia MacDonnell published a collection, The Topography of Hidden Stories, which included a story particularly relevant at this historical moment. Recently, she described this story, “Red Stain on Yellow Dress,” as a “fictional meditation on what young women may have experienced in the epoch before the passage of Roe v. Wade” and added a warning that the story is “gritty and bloody, the way things used to be. Maybe you’ll weep when you read it, the way I did when I wrote it.”
Our Abortion Stories: “The Word ‘Freedom’ Is Hypocrisy When Women Lose the Right To Control Their Own Bodies”
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. We’re chronicling readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe.
“When supported by a partner, pregnancy can be a joyful wonder. When unwanted, it can be absolutely horrible. .. The word ‘freedom’ is hypocrisy when women and girls lose the right and the ability to control their own bodies.”
Our Abortion Stories: ‘The Baby’s Life Came First, Apparently, so I Was Sent Home’
The Supreme Court is poised to overrule the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. Ms.’s Our Abortion Stories series chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe.
*Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com, and sign the petition.*