"Abortion stories aren't tidy. Because people's lives aren't tidy."
Several months ago I sat down in my home office with a pair of headphones and my laptop, and one goal for the day: to listen to dozens of people talk about their abortions, or in some cases, the abortions they didn't have. |
We had solicited these stories from Times readers last fall, ahead of oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that was decided on Friday, overturning Roe v. Wade. Hundreds of women called in. |
What I heard — and what my colleagues who joined me in that effort heard — was in many ways extraordinary. A number recounted brutal pre-Roe experiences: being blindfolded and taken to strange places, enduring blood loss and infection. (Of course, these were the women who survived to tell their stories.) |
Other stories were less dramatic, but no less affecting. It struck me while listening to them one after another that what I was hearing was also deeply ordinary, in the sense that almost everyone has or will have some experience with abortion in life. Maybe you'll have one yourself, or maybe you'll talk a friend or partner through their decision. Or maybe one of your ancestors had an abortion that altered the makeup of your family tree. Maybe that abortion even allowed you to exist. |
In the end, we selected about a dozen stories to feature in a multimedia project that highlights the voices of people who have confronted this issue. We selected these stories not because they were the most sensational ones shared with us, but because they all, in their own way, showed how abortion is a complex human experience — often messy, nuanced, unpredictable. At this remarkable time for American women, it felt important to remember that those complexities exist, and that abortion is much more than a fight playing out in the courts and on cable TV. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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