A Necessary Kindness by Juno Carey review – demystifying abortion: an insider’s account of its long and painful history

Eight years working in abortion provision led the author to make this frank and moving case for safeguarding reproductive freedoms – and ending the culture of secrecy and guilt

Barbara Ellen
Sun 7 Apr 2024

It isn’t long into reading Juno Carey’s book that you realise it also serves as a meditation on women and shame. A former NHS midwife who moved into abortion provision (first in clinics then on aftercare helplines), Carey (not her real name) was asked how she could do both, but in her view: “The gap between helping women deliver babies and helping them terminate unwanted pregnancies no longer seems wide to me.” As the title says, it is “a necessary kindness”, another way of aiding pregnant women. While acknowledging the complexities, Carey seeks to demystify abortion – the fact of it, the need for it, the processes of it – to rid it of the long, painful history of judgment, blame and misogynistic juju, and stress its rightful function in a civilised society. Abortion, she asserts, is healthcare.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/07/a-necessary-kindness-by-juno-carey-review-stories-from-frontline-of-abortion-care

07.04.2024

South Africa – The challenges of accessing abortion clinics

Published Oct 19, 2022

Johannesburg - Pregnancy can be an exhilarating time for many while for others, it sinks them deep into depression, with the children at times unwanted.

For those women who feel they are not ready for the responsibility that comes with parenting, abortion becomes the only option or at times, the only solution.

Continued: https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/africa/the-challenges-of-accessing-abortion-clinics-81eeb901-e5d7-4f18-bb28-1406d62329d1

South Korean women hope for change to abortion laws

South Korean women hope for change to abortion laws

April 9, 2019

More than a quarter of a century after the first of her three abortions—illegal in South Korea—Lim is still haunted by her sense of shame.

She was 24 and had a boyfriend, but neither was ready to wed. And it was 1993, when sex before marriage was still very much a taboo in the conservative country.

Continued: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-south-korean-women-abortion-laws.html

USA – The Good Surprises of My Two Abortions: The Story Behind 2+ Abortions @AboboBravado

The Good Surprises of My Two Abortions: The Story Behind 2+ Abortions @AboboBravado

January 19, 2019

This is a picture of me in the moment I realized my friend Martha had orchestrated a surprise birthday party when I turned 36. The feeling of electric delight from the shock was uncontainable. I still marvel that everyone involved had been able to keep the party a secret.

But here’s the thing. I had my own secret, and it wasn’t delightful. Soon enough, my constant companion named Shame would lean in and whisper into my ear: “You had two abortions. If they knew, they wouldn’t have come to the party. They wouldn’t even want to be near you.”

Continued: http://www.abortionconversationproject.org/blog/2019/1/19/the-good-surprises-of-my-two-abortions-the-story-behind-2-abortionsabobobravado

Australia – Why abortion should not be a crime

Why abortion should not be a crime

By Philip Goldstone
27 September 2018

As a doctor who has worked in the field of reproductive healthcare for many years, I could list so many evidence-based and peer-researched studies and reasons on why abortion should be decriminalised. But the most profound and overriding reason for me is to end the shame and stigma that we heap onto women accessing this health service each and every day.

Shame and stigma is something that I am familiar with; I have worked in the mental health sector and I have worked in the women’s health sector. Both of these areas share the dark burden of shame and stigma. And as a doctor I have seen what happens when that shame and stigma becomes too much. It results in crippling guilt, psychological trauma and sometimes self-harm.

Continued: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/why-abortion-should-not-be-a-crime-20180926-p50665.html