Thread by @monaeltahawy

In 1996, I was pregnant and needed an abortion in Egypt, one of the most restrictive countries in the world where the procedure is banned under all circumstances. My then boyfriend and I found an OB/GYN who performed abortions at his clinic.

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1534500067155095555

“I can do it right now! Pay the 400 pounds (approx. $107) now and I can abort you right now. The operating room is right next door. It won’t take long,” the (male) doctor told me soon after my boyfriend and I went in to see him. feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…

I told him I preferred to come in the next day. We returned the next day, I paid the 400 pounds and had a safe and “illegal” abortion,

For breaking the law in Egypt, I could have been sent to prison for 6mths-3yrs. The doctor could have faced 3-15yyrs in prison.

When abortion is “illegal,” it does not make it rare nor eradicate it. It makes it dangerous and often deadly for the poorest and most vulnerable people who can get pregnant. feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-…

I could afford the doctor’s fee for a safe, “illegal” abortion. Countless other women in Egypt can’t and pay instead for an unsafe abortion with their health or life.

The documentary #TheJanes is a reminder to those who don't know that in the U.S. feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…

Abortion is a human right, not a bonus or a reward we must earn.

I say "legal" and "illegal" in inverted commas because I reject the State’s attempt to control my uterus. The State can fuck off with its opinions about what I can & can’t do with my uterus feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-se…

Support my work.

Subscribe--it's free. If you can pay, it helps to keep it free.

feministgiant.com

For as long as patriarchy can shroud abortion with silence, it will continue to stamp it in shame. So I broke my silence to break free of shame. I have had an "illegal" abortion and a "legal" one.

One of the reasons I decided to finally speak was to say what I'd long yearned to read: I had an abortion because I didn't want to be pregnant. That’s it.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-lies-s…

In so many of the abortion narratives I read, it was as if women were pleading for mercy & forgiveness that belonged to no one to give. feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-…

As if they had to prove they were “worthy” of the abortion–whether by virtue of pain they'd endured in becoming pregnant (by rape or incest) or pain they'd endure by carrying the pregnancy to term; as if they had to prove their abortion was a “good” one because they were “good.”