Thread by @monaeltahawy

In 1996, I had an “illegal” abortion in Egypt and in 2000 I had a “legal” abortion in the US. I share my stories because I know how long it took me to share them and how many others need to hear them (as I did). #OurAbortionStories

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

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. I could afford the doctor’s fee for getting a safe, “illegal” abortion. #OurAbortionStories

Countless other women in Egypt can’t afford one and pay instead for an unsafe abortion with their health or life.  

The U.S. has a not too distant last of “illegal” abortion 👇🏽feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres… #OurAbortionStories

Four years after my “illegal” abortion in Egypt, I had a “legal” abortion in the U.S., where the Supreme Court now stands poised to overturn Roe v Wade, thus ending the federal protection of abortion. feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-ha… #OurAbortionStories

I use inverted commas around “illegal” and “legal” because the State–and the Supreme Court–can fuck off with its opinions about what I can and can’t do with my uterus. That control belongs to me. feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-se… #OurAbortionStories

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

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. feministgiant.com/p/essay-lies-s… #OurAbortionStories

My essays on my abortions are also available in Arabic, translated by @itmeansagift, thanks to laid subscriptions of FEMINIST GIANT.

My newsletter is free. Paid subscriptions help to keep it free and help to expand it via translations

feministgiant.com

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. In so many abortion narratives, it was as if women were pleading for mercy & forgiveness that belonged to no one to give.

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

We do not owe anyone an explanation or a reason for our abortion. Much like we insist on rejecting the “worthy victim” scenario of sexual assault, so too must we reject the “worthy recipient” of an abortion.
#ourabortionstories #RoeVWade feministgiant.com/p/essay-lies-s…