By Laura Hurley
Laura Hurley is Communications Officer at the Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF), a global fund dedicated to safe abortion. The original version of this blogpost is on the SAAF website:
Abortion is so often portrayed as something traumatic, sad, unfortunate. Even those who fully support abortion access may be inclined to “apologize” for it and focus on negative situations to justify the need for safe services.
Certainly, many people around the world face incredibly difficult situations because of it restriction access to abortion. They can face serious risks to their health and very often their life choices are compromised and limited. But when we only talk about abortion in these desperate and negative terms, we miss the full reality of people’s experiences.
Abortion saves lives and changes lives.
We already know that abortions bring relief for the majority of people who have them. ONE long-term study from the USA shows that women who receive a desired abortion are “more financially stable, set more ambitious goals, (and) raise children under more stable circumstances.” Abortions can benefit romantic and family relationships and boost women’s ambitions and achievements.
When we pay attention to people who have abortions, we see that there are often positive outcomes and elements of pleasure, happiness and community.
Abortion care can be a source of positive emotions.
ONE recent study with feminist groups in Argentina, Chile and Ecuador (including grant partner SAAF Las Comadres) found that those who advocate for people to access abortion care report, and themselves feel, a range of positive emotions.
Feminist abortion advocacy is well established throughout Latin America, where restrictive laws and economic constraints often prohibit access to clinical abortion care. Escort networks provide financial, practical and emotional support to abortion seekers, helping them navigate oppressive systems.
Respondents for this study provided companionship after 17 weeks’ gestation, which often included overnight stays with those who completed their pregnancies and a level of intimacy that can bring:
“We end up sleeping next to them because you end up being there for more than 12 hours. So you end up not only talking about abortion, but whether you like chocolate or not, about other things in life. That’s great and I think we need more of that, to be able to enjoy companionship, moments of enjoyment.”
Abortion escort as an embodiment of feminist practice.
There are some beautiful quotes in the research report from those who provide abortion care and support in often difficult circumstances.
Again, the abortion literature often problematizes second- and third-trimester abortions as inherently “traumatic.” Of course, the study acknowledges the risks involved, and that the process is “physically and emotionally demanding for all involved.” However, he is looking to find the places where there is also joy.
Those interviewed speak of a very specific form of love and intimacy that can exist in the act of accompanying an abortion. And that this connection is explicitly linked to the marginalization and “difficulty” of the act of terminating a pregnancy, where it is criminalized and stigmatized:
“I feel like it’s great to be able to have these spaces of shared complicity, knowing that we’re doing something that’s on the fringes [of society]that we transgress and that we don’t do it alone.”
“The happiness of a woman having an abortion is an indescribable feeling, how she transmits it to you. I mean, that feeling of relief that he feels, and when he gives it to you, I think it’s something that gives you happiness and that’s why we all do what we do… it’s really a feeling of freedom, autonomy, trust, complicity.”
These women work with a certain kind of trust and solidarity, to support an act so shunned by the rest of society, but so vital to self-actualization.
My own involvement in abortion activism has shown me firsthand the joy and camaraderie that can exist.
So many of the people I know who campaign for safe abortion or provide abortion care are not only brave and passionate, but also have a great sense of humour.
People fighting for such a stigmatized and criminalized act must find some levity in difficult situations. Feeling like you’re working against social norms can lead to a real community spirit. And those who are willing to risk abuse, even persecution, to ensure that others have the right to terminate pregnancies, do so out of love and care.
It has been great to see this recognized in recent years, with a greater public recognition of abortion care and support as an act of love, resistance and community. For example, the phrase “Everybody Loves Someone Who Has Had an Abortion” devised by Renee Bracey Sherman of We Testify, which focuses on human connection. And the Camila Ochoa Mendoz podcast “Abortion, with love” which seeks to “reclaim the ways we talk about abortion”.
Let’s tell a more extended story about abortion.
Today, at World Day of Action for the Destigmatization of Abortion, we can think about how we talk about abortion in our communities. The next time you write or speak about abortion, there are ways you may inadvertently reinforce the perception of abortion as merely a “difficult” issue or a “necessary evil.” When in fact, the ability to choose our own reproductive destiny, and to support others to do so, can be a source of great promise, freedom, and even joy.
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The SAAF approved the “Pleasure Principles” as we believe that abortion work should be done through a sex-positive and pleasure-focused lens.
Photo: SAAF beneficiary partner association Jeunes Volontaires pour la Santé
