Last week, #ShoutYourAbortion trended online
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for a full day. People pissed off about the pro-life folks’ fight to take funding away from Planned Parenthood created the hashtag to encourage women to share their abortion stories publicly.Despite criticism, threats and merciless amounts of trolling, multitudes of women who have had terminated pregnancies used the #ShoutYourAbortion hashtag to share their experiences and show solidarity with a woman’s right to choose.
I consider myself to be pro-choice—I think it’s creepy for the government to try to control what a woman does with her reproductive system.
In spite of that sentiment, though, I’m not sure how I feel about hashtagging abortion. As outspoken and unconventional and artsy as I might be, even I have mixed emotions about whether this type of activism is needed. After all, isn’t the pro-choice fight all about accepting that a woman has a right to make a personal decision for her own body? Doesn’t tweeting about your reproductive history take away the part of it that is personal? I’m sorry, but I had a hard time seeing abortion stories in 140 characters or less. Just saying.
And don’t get me wrong, I definitely see how the #ShoutYourAbortion hashtag might have helped break down abortion stigma.
Talking about it publicly shows that plenty of women from all walks of life have had abortions, proving that many normal chicks have opted to end pregnancies for many different reasons.
However, not sharing your story doesn’t mean you are ashamed or regretful. The decision to become a mother or not is one of the most private decisions a woman will ever make, and not only does she deserve the right to do with her body what she sees fit, she also has the right to have her decision remain private.
That’s why I think all the drama over abortion rights is hella insulting.
It is ridiculous that the fight for women’s health is so controversial, as if our gender inherently makes our bodies a subject for public political debate. And the fact that there are idiots in the world who think it’s OK to threaten a woman’s life because of her choice to end her pregnancy shows you that the pro-life folks need to teach their own supporters to respect life before they try to tell an entire country full of women what to do. Seriously, bruh. Back up off my ovaries.
Although online activism is no longer a new thing and it helps us bring major issues to light all the time, I think it’s kinda awful that in 2015, the fight for a woman’s reproductive rights is such a struggle that we are compelled to publicly disclose intimate details of our lives just to raise awareness. I understand why so many women are passionate about the abortion rights cause. But no woman should have to trade her privacy to show her solidarity.
RedEye special contributor Nikki Lynette, a Chicago native, is an indie recording artist whose music appears on MTV, VH1, Showtime and more.