Abortion and “Beyond Politics”

The Students for Life campus group held an event last night called “Beyond Politics,” where they hosted two womyn from Operation Outcry. Each speaker shared their own heart-wrenching story of their abortion, and how it led them to their political and activist stance.

I was nervous before attending this event because I doubted the “beyond politics” guise and feared the potential of showing my support by attendance for rhetoric that paints Pro-Choice advocacy as murderous.

Despite the event’s title’s claim to escape the inevitable political mantra about abortion, it emerged. The speakers’ stances were heavily infused with a political message that abortion should be illegal. We were first bombarded with sound bites of information, like claims that 1/3 of the current generation was murdered and accusations against the Susan G. Komen Foundation for actually increasing the risk of breast cancer because they fund Planned Parenthood (apparently abortion increases the risk of breast cancer.)

I thought that I would be immediately turned off by the accusatory talk, but I left with a new idea of how abortion politics should be framed and new persuasive ways of advocacy that should be the base of the abortion debate. Each womyn’s personal story left me close to tears, as they explained the physical and emotional trauma of abortion. I did not find either of their stories particularly Pro-Life, only their political/religious beliefs that informed their interpretation of events. Both womyn were coerced to have an abortion; one forced by her drug-addicted boyfriend and the other by her parents and doctor. I saw the pain in not being able to have a choice or their voices considered. The first speaker empathetically told the doctor she did not want to go through with her abortion at her appointment, yet her parents pressured her into the decision. She was half-conscious and screamed through the painful procedure, only to be held down by nurses and told not to be too loud to scare patients in the waiting room.  The other fell into a deep depression.

These parts of their stories broke my heart and brought me to the conclusion of how there needs to be a change in how we talk about abortion. These stories are lost in the detached Capitol Hill and Supreme Court decisions.

To me, it wasn’t abortion that hurt these womyn, but rather the lack of education about the procedures, the lack of options for pregnant womyn, and societies attitude regarding womyn’s choice. I find it incredibly surprising that Pro-Life activists informed me, an ardent feminist, in how abortion needs to be reformed. There ought to concern, funding, and education regarding womyn’s health care, and I think hearing stories of people’s experiences regarding abortion will change how we think about the procedure and womyn’s voices.

-Lexie Tourek