Thread by @monaeltahawy

Sept. 28 is #InternationalSafeAbortionDay. Abortion should be safe every day. In 1996, I had an "illegal" abortion in Egypt. I was lucky.

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1442084453648683010

I was lucky because when I found out I was pregnant, my boyfriend’s cousin recommended an OB/GYN doctor in Cairo who performed abortions in his clinic. I was lucky because I could afford the procedure. feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-… #InternationalSafeAbortionDay

In 2000, I had a "legal" abortion in Seattle in the US. Again, I was lucky. I did not have to drive for miles to access abortion care. I did not have to take time off that I could not afford from work or find overnight accommodations because there was no clinic in my town.

Since the year I had my second abortion, many such hardships have increasingly become the reality for pregnant people in towns across the south in the U.S. #InternationalSafeAbortionDay #AbortionIsNormal

Long before Texas banned abortion and offered a $10,000 bounty for those who report abortions, Roe v Wade had ceased to become a reality for Black, Brown, and poor women.feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-… #InternationalSafeAbortionDay

Criminalizing abortion does not eradicate it nor does it make it rare. It makes it dangerous and often deadly for the poorest and most vulnerable people who can get pregnant.

amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/… #InternationalSafeAbortionDay

"When undertaken by a trained health-care provider in sanitary conditions, abortions are one of the safest medical procedures available, safer even than child birth." amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/… #InternationalSafeAbortionDay

Worldwide, an estimated 1 in 4 pregnancies end in an abortion every year.

Including mine.

You know someone who has had an abortion. Including me.

feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-… #InternationalSafeAbortionDay

You can hear my essay as an audio essay and read others here.

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feministgiant.com

I say "legal"/"illegal" because I reject the State’s attempt to control my uterus. I reject its power to declare what is “legal”/“illegal” when it comes to my abortions.

The State can fuck off w/ its opinions about what I can/can’t do with my uterus.That control belongs to me

I was not raped. I was not sick. The pregnancies did not threaten my life. I did not already have children. I just did not want to be pregnant. I did not want to have a child. And so I had two abortions.
#InternationalSafeAbortionDay

I am glad I had my abortions. They gave me the freedom to live the life I have chosen.

My essay is long overdue. I have long owed it to those who look like me and who rarely see themselves in abortion narratives.

feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-…
#InternationalSafeAbortionDay

Those of us from countries that criminalize abortion, which are intent on punishing us for daring to take ownership of our bodies & our sexual desire outside of the norms, and that police our bodies & punish us for sex outside of marriage between a man & a woman need our stories.

I am accepting the dare to share for my younger self who had no one to talk to about her abortions; for anyone who recognizes that their abortion is considered esp shameful or outrageous because it doesn't follow the few acceptable abortion narratives. feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-…

Abortion is normal.

Remember that as we mark #InternationalSafeAbortionDay on September 28 and on every day.

Read my essays and sign up!

feministgiant.com/p/coming-soon?…