Comment & Debate
Rachel Kramer Bussel, “I’m Pro-Choice and I Fuck”, Village Voice, January 13, 2006 – “I’m pro-choice because I couldn’t fully enjoy sex were I consumed with worry about the potential consequences. I’m pro-choice for all my friends who’ve had abortions and gone on to do great things, who are better women for being childless (for now). I’m pro-choice for the new moms and dads I know who were able to actively choose to become parents. I’m pro-choice for all those babies… born knowing they’re 100 percent loved and wanted.”[1]
Aida Torres and Jacqueline Darroch Forrest, “Why Do Women Have Abortions”, Family Planning Perpectives, 20 (4) Jul/Aug 1988, pp 169-176 (The bimonthly research journal of The Alan Guttmacher Institute). – “Three-quarters [of post-abortive women surveyed] said that having a baby would interfere with work, school, or other responsibilities, about two-thirds said they could not afford to have a child and half said they did not want to be a single parent or had relationship problems.”[2]
Gloria Steinem, appearing in the documentary film Speak Out: I Had An Abortion, 2005 – “It was 1957 and I was living in London, working as a waitress. I had no money and no friends and was trying to figure out what to do. There was no way I could give birth to someone and also give birth to myself. At the time, to get an abortion in England you needed two doctors to write a letter stating that it was [medically] necessary. I could not make myself feel guilty for a moment. It was the first time I took responsibility for my life. You know, when you are desperate, it’s easy to make the decision to abort. Ambivalence seems to be a function of legality.”[3]