Thread by @UjuAnya

Been tweeting about abortion a lot lately. And I’ll continue. I’d like to describe my elective abortion and my spontaneous abortion, which we call a miscarriage. Both happened at 9 weeks and required same procedure. For one, I thanked the doctor, the other, I cried endlessly.

It was my choice to end my 1st pregnancy, and I was lucky to have it. Pregnancy, childbirth are dangerous, life+body altering experiences. Women in my family died in childbirth. Others got chronic disease, serious injuries. Many in poverty worsened by having too many children.

My second pregnancy was planned and wanted. I had a job, stable relationship with a partner committed to parenting. I was also much older, more responsible, and emotionally prepared to mother. Sadly, fetus had no heartbeat, and pregnancy couldn’t continue. I got another abortion.

98% of abortions happen 1st trimester when fetus is size of a fingertip. Both my 1st, 2nd pregnancies ended at 9 weeks using same simple, safe procedure vacuuming lining and products of conception out of the uterus. (Pills can also be used for cramps, expulsion like a period).

The difference between how my 1st and 2nd pregnancies ended was my desire. I didn’t want to remain pregnant and give birth in the 1st, and I desperately wanted to in the 2nd. After the 1st, I thanked the abortion provider for saving my life. After the 2nd, I was inconsolable.

A year after the spontaneous abortion, my partner and I tried, and I got pregnant again. This time, I carried the pregnancy to full term and gave birth to the boy who made me a mother. Five years later, when I was finishing my PhD and ready for another child, I had my daughter.

Age 21 seeking to end my first pregnancy, Planned Parenthood saved my life. They provided full birth control+emotional counseling, abortion care, and support throughout the process. Even hugged and walked me through crowds of screaming hateful white people harassing us outside.

At 28 seeking to end my second pregnancy and remove the dead fetus inside my uterus, my regular ObGyn where I was getting prenatal care performed the same abortion procedure Planned Parenthood did for me at their clinic, but this time, at a regular full service hospital.

Abortion care for both my unwanted and wanted pregnancies could’ve been provided by giving me a pill that would cause cramps and help expel contents of my uterus. Basically, a heavy period, which by the way, “late” ones regularly expel early pregnancies that couldn’t stick.

Safe, simple, professional, effective abortion care like I received for both pregnancies is lifesaving healthcare. Pregnancy and childbirth injure, disable, and kill people every day. Abortion is much safer. And we deserve healthcare and support for if we choose to birth or not.

I’ve told you my abortion stories to remind you that 1 in 4 women in the US will have an abortion by age 45. And side note, the majority of those who seek abortion care already have living children. I had abortion in US, my mom had one in Nigeria (ObGyn friend did it quietly).

I remind all, lives of actual living, breathing human beings are at stake when we promote and legislate misogynist forced birth ideologies. People who can get pregnant and give birth are not brood mares to ease demographic anxiety and supply labor and adoptees. We have choice.

Adding to my thread a very important thread on what happens to our bodies and lives during and as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. A lot of people just don’t know how serious and dangerous all of this is. Or you don’t value women’s lives and think somehow we deserve it.

https://twitter.com/ijeomaogood/status/1353717026733379585

Also adding, when we discuss unwanted pregnancies, abortion, people say adoption. But, to give a child for adoption, someone has to risk their life, endure pain, injury, permanently alter their body for pregnancy and birth. You can’t use laws and bans to force us to surrogate.

I’m muting this thread and moving on. Y’all be safe and don’t allow lying misogynists who don’t rate women to claim a potential life the size of a tic tac is a baby. Challenge their stupid, hateful ideas and their justification of forcing people to give birth against our will.