1 in 3

1 in 3

Adult nonfiction
One in three American women will have an abortion. Chances are
slim to nonexistent that you have no colleagues, friends, teachers, or
family members in this category. You may even be included. I know I
am.
Back in 1995 I learned during what was supposed to be a routine
sonogram that the fetus I was carrying did not have a heart beat.
About a week later I was immersed in the Miscarriage from Hell. The
bleeding and agonizing crampd did not stop. After about 40 days I
also had the fever and chills of a systemic infection. So I had a
choice to make: tough it out til stillbirth, risking losing my
fertility and life, or go in for a legal procedure that would let me
live to raise my daughters and eventually give them a baby brother.
I feel a lot of pain when right to life groups try to make the
issue of abortion so black and white, so theoretical and judgemental.
By portraying women who have had abortions as basically cold blooded
killers, they create an atmosphere of stigma. Not knowing who to
trust to talk to can surround us in separateness and silence.
The 1 in 3 campaign is trying to remove the secrecy and stigma
by encouraging women like me to share our stories. In doing so we can
be there for one another and speak up for women's right to a safe
medical procedure...a procedure that is very much jeopardized in
today's political climate.
1 in 3 has a website with hundreds of deeply personal stories of
women who have had abortions for a number of reasons: dead fetuses,
severe fetal birth defects, impregnation by rape, jeopardy to maternal
health or life, poverty, abusive partners...
www.1in3campaign.org
There is also a print compilation of 40 stories put together for the
40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
I am deeply grateful to 1 in 3 for creating space for very
needed conversations and activism. I probably would have died without
an abortion. I want women in my situation to have access to safe
medical care and not be driven by desperation to self induce by
knitting needles or toxins or put themselves into the hands of
backstreet butchers.
A great big shout out goes out to all who fight for women's right to
safe, legal abortions.
jules hathaway


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