Celebrating the Right to Choose

Seeing Alice's recent post about a young lady's positive experience with abortion, I decided to post a website that I have been a fan of for awhile.

I'm not sorry.

It's a pro-choice website where users are free to post their experience with abortions.  There are many listed on there, and one for every situation you can imagine.

Happy reading! 

-Stef

I had an abortion and I don't regret it!

I always find great things on feministing.com. If you haven't made it your homepage I suggest you do! I found the following piece from the community section and it warmed my heart:

This is the story of my abortion. If you're against abortion or you are easily grossed out by talk of graphic surgical procedures, don't read. :)

I had an abortion last month. It was probably the hardest choice I've ever had to make. I love children and I want to be a mother SO badly. Call me unfeminist if you will, but my dream is to have that white picket fenced house in the suburbs with a pack of kids, a husband, and a bunch of pets. I'm 21 years old, I don't have a steady job or a car or my own house, my boyfriend and I have only been together for 6 months, my health is crap, I'm a borderline alcoholic, yada yada yada. So really, bad time to have a baby. I am not a fan of adoption - I've heard far too many horror stories, and I couldn't send my baby out in the world to be raised by someone else who might not be a good parent. If anyone's going to fuck up my kids, it's going to be me!, and given my health and drinking, it would have been likely that I and/or my child would have been seriously damaged by the pregnancy.

So the choice was clear: abortion was the way to go. Even though deep down I knew that I just couldn't have a child right now, it really hurt to admit it, and I was terrified (irrationally so) that maybe the pro-lifers were right - I WOULD regret it forever, I WOULD have "post-abortion syndrome", I WOULD be smote by God, I would become infertile and get breast cancer and DIE, or something. I was also scared that it would hurt too much, physically, and I would die from blood loss or something. Surgery scares me, and considering I found out I was pregnant quite late due to my irregular periods (14 weeks) and wasn't able to get an appointment until nearly 16 weeks, it was a more invasive and risky procedure than if I had found out at say, 6 weeks and had it terminated at 8 weeks.

So, I went in to the clinic with my boyfriend, filled out a few forms, and went in to the "counseling room" with a kind young woman who explained the procedure and asked if I had any questions. I had checked the boxes on the form for birth control prescription (obviously the pill wasn't doing it for me, so I wanted to try something new) and pap smear, so she also explained a few different types of birth control and we settled on the nuvaring, which she wrote me a prescription for on the spot. I was a little shaky, so she gave me a hug as well.

After that, I continued on to the exam room, where the tech did a quick ultrasound and gave me a muscle relaxant and some sort of white, sharp sided pill (cytotec?) to put up my vagina to soften the cervix. Ick! This was the worst part of the procedure by far. The feeling just grossed me out. But somehow I survived, and after an hour of listening to White Snake in the "comfort room", I was led to the OR and I cracked grammar jokes with the nurse while she hooked me up to an IV. I honestly don't remember much after that, but apparently the procedure took a mere 5 minutes, and it didn't hurt at all. The nurse led me out to another waiting room and fed me juice and cookies, and I was allowed to rest for as long as I needed.

And....that's it! I felt pretty crappy for about 2 weeks afterward - I bled like a stuck pig for almost a week, my breasts were swollen to painful proportions, and my emotions were a total rollercoaster, but...it got better. I'm sitting here now feeling 100% okay with my choice. My abortion went totally by the book, I haven't been smote by a vengeful god, I'm not wracked with guilt, and my boyfriend and I are still together and happier than ever.

That's my happy abortion story. Does anyone else have one to share?

Rape/Abortion Case in Brazil

Click here to read "Nine-Year-Old's Abortion Outrages Brazil's Catholic Church".

"Archibishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of the coastal city of Recife announced that the Vatican was excommunicating the family of a local girl who had been raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather, because they had chosen to have the girl undergo an abortion. The Church excommunicated the doctors who performed the procedure as well."

- Alice

Celebrating the Right to Choose

I'm Not Sorry

"I'mNotSorry.net is a site where women can share their positive experiences with abortion. The stories posted on this site may contain graphic descriptions of medical procedures, as well as attitudes that may not be in current vogue. We welcome all visitors of all opinions as long as they are respectful of our views"

- Vivian

Herbal abortions

I'm not sure how effective these methods may be but anyone who's interested can check out this website which contains suggestions for herbal abortion methods. The site can be kind of confusing to navigate through but there is some interesting information in there if you're willing to search for it.

Warning: use herbal abortion methods at your own risk.

- Alice

Their voices back: Pro-choice organisations ungagged

"The global gag rule has been a feature of the United States of America’s foreign aid policy since 1984, when Ronald Reagan was the country’s Conservative president. The policy is more formally known as the Mexico City Policy, because it was announced during the United Nations International Conference on Population which was held in Mexico City in 1984. It was nicknamed the ‘global gag rule’ because it restricted the discussion of, or the passing on of information about abortion..."
READ MORE

- Vivian

Confidential Abortion Clinics in Toronto

Here is some general information about abortion procedures and abortion clinics in the city of Toronto from the hassle free clinic's website. Please feel free to contact us if you live outside of Toronto and we will help you find a clinic near you. The clinics listed on this page are confidential and do not require parental consent. They are covered by OHIP but will take women without health cards for a fee (depending on the procedure).

- Alice

Uncaria tomentosa

I recently quit my job at a homeopathic clinic and wellness center. One of their most popular prescribed remedies is called cat's claw (or uncaria tormentosa). It is a remedy derived from a vine that grows in South America and it is believed to have really useful properties. I read up a bit about it is most commonly used in homeopathy to treat cancer, AIDS, viral infections, colitis, etc. as well as to boost the immune system. Apparently, though, the only condition it has actually (scientifically) proven to alleviate is arthritis.

Anyway, apparently cat's claw has traditionally been used as a contraceptive in South America, and if taken in relatively large doses, may induce miscarriage. I have a bottle of the stuff and I am a bit skeptical about trying it (as a contraceptive and otherwise) because of the lack of concrete information, studies and research about it that I have been able to find (mind you, I haven't done extensive research on it) but I thought it'd be interesting to mention anyway! I will update if I find new information about this.

- Vivian

Re: Parsley & Late Periods

I actually tried the parsley method a few months back. I read extensively and figured "why not?". At the point that I attempted it, I had started getting mild cramps and breast swelling (a sign of my period approaching) so I figured it might speed up the process. I didn't have cheesecloth so I simply picked a palm-full of fresh parsley from my herb garden, gave it a good wash and carefully bunched it into my vagina. I left it there for quite some time (several hours), and I repeated the process about 3 or 4 times, making sure to carefully remove every bit of parsley when I finished.

It didn't work at all. In fact my period came two weeks after this (I'm rarely late!)...maybe if I had tried this method past the time when my period was due it would have worked? I'm not sure if I'd try it again, but perhaps! One of my mother's friends swears by it, so maybe it was just a bad time for my body.

- Vivian

Parsley & Late Periods

Apparently parsley can stimulate menstruation if your period's late. Check out this site to find out how. There are also links at the top of the page for herbal fertility, contraception and abortion. We're not sure how effective these methods are but it's definitely worth reading.

- Alice