Our Abortion Stories: ‘I’m a Registered Nurse, a Wife and a Mother. This Story Is Personal and Painful.’

Feb 13, 2024
by AMY ROGERS

My name is Amy Rogers; I’m a registered nurse, a wife and a mother.  I am writing this in support of House Bill 12, the Women’s Health Protection Act. This story is personal and painful. I am sharing this for myself, my daughters, and the 25 million women of childbearing age living in states with abortion bans or restrictions.

In 2011, my husband and I were newlyweds. We had primary custody of his 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. I had just turned 43 and was shocked and delighted to discover that I was pregnant. Due to my age, I assumed my chances of conceiving without fertility treatments were slim to none.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/02/13/dobbs-abortion-story-healthcare-genetic-testing-abnormality-womens-health-protection-act/


What It’s Like to Be Denied an Abortion in Your State

By Nancy Davis
1/18/2024 

When Nancy Davis was denied an abortion for a nonviable fetus in her home state of Louisiana in 2022, she took her story to media outlets in an attempt to draw attention to what she sees as a fundamental injustice that disproportionately affects Black women like her. Davis, the mother of an 18-year-old, a 14-year-old, and a 2-year-old, is now an outspoken advocate for reproductive justice. She formed the Nancy Davis Foundation to help other women in similar situations. As part of that work, she has organized the upcoming Voices For Change March on Baton Rouge, which falls on Jan. 21, a day before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Davis told us about the trauma of being denied critical healthcare, what it was like to travel out of state to obtain her abortion, and why she continues to use her voice for others. Read it all, in her own words, below.

Continued: https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/travel-for-abortion-nancy-davis-49330698


Kate Cox explains why she is suing Texas over abortion law

Kate Cox, for the Dallas Morning News
Dec. 11, 2023

We have always wanted a large family, and after our 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son came along, Justin and I began planning and trying for one more.

Because both of my earlier pregnancies required C-sections, we knew this one and any subsequent pregnancy would be considered a higher risk to me and to the pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.ourmidland.com/opinion/voices/article/kate-cox-explains-suing-texas-abortion-law-18546890.php


Ohio: One woman’s story shows why abortion rights matter

Rini Jeffers, The Chronicle-Telegram
Nov 04, 2023

When she found out she was pregnant last year, Katie was thrilled.

She’d always wanted kids, plural, and she and her husband already had a beautiful little girl, born the year before. The first pregnancy had gone normally and their daughter was healthy; there was so much to look forward to for the Lorain County couple.

Then came the blood tests.

Continued: https://chroniclet.com/news/371148/one-womans-story-shows-why-abortion-rights-matter/


Women’s lives, like mine, hang in the balance if medication abortion is banned

Emma Burns
OCTOBER 18, 2023

This week, Vice President Kamala Harris visited my alma mater, Northern Arizona University, as part of her “Fight for Our Freedoms” college tour to discuss key issues that disproportionately impact young people across America, including reproductive freedom. This issue is deeply personal to me, which is why I’m sharing my story of how receiving an abortion while I was a student at NAU saved my life. Without access to a medication abortion, I would not have lived to see the end of my sophomore year, let alone my college graduation. The fight for our reproductive freedom is as important as ever now that access to this life-saving form of health care is under attack.

As a 19-year-old college student already struggling, finding out you’re pregnant with twins is akin to submerging underwater. The world falls silent, and your only thought is of survival. I knew the only way for me to move forward would be to terminate my pregnancy. But due to Arizona’s restrictive abortion laws and lack of access to care, I was almost unable to make this decision for myself.

Continued: https://www.azmirror.com/2023/10/18/womens-lives-like-mine-hang-in-the-balance-if-medication-abortion-is-banned/


My abortion changed my life for the better. I’m not alone

By TARA GIBSON
Oct 17, 2023

There’s a movie from the late 1990s called “Sliding Doors” that chronicles two parallel storylines based on whether or not the main character catches a subway train. Both scenarios are wildly different, underscoring that the whole course of one’s life can be altered in an instant.

My own “Sliding Doors” moment came in 2003. I was a 26-year-old working as a waitress in my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I was in a relationship with an old friend from high school when I unexpectedly got pregnant. I could see my whole life stretching out in front of me in two directions: I could stay in my hometown, keep working in the restaurant and raise a kid near my parents; or I could have an abortion, go back to school and choose a new life for myself.

Continued: https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/commentary-my-abortion-changed-my-life-for-the-better-im-not-alone/article_a9b0eec2-6878-11ee-bb9b-f38b451d6456.html


Britney Spears says she had abortion when dating Justin Timberlake

Oct 17, 2023
BBC News, New York

Britney Spears had an abortion after getting pregnant with Justin Timberlake, according to excerpts from her upcoming memoir. The pop star's new book, The Woman in Me, focuses in part on her 13-year conservatorship under her father James Spears.

Mr Timberlake was "not happy" about Ms Spears being pregnant, according to extracts published in People magazine.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67136898


Kenya – Poverty, ignorance led us to unsafe abortions

By Sharon Wanga
Oct. 2, 2023

Susan Wairimu can’t hide the joy of having her 3-year-old daughter playing her around despite her past mistakes in life. The 23-year-old mother recounts how different her childhood life was when she lived with her father and siblings in Mathare slums.

“Being raised by a single parent, my father always locked us up in the house and isolated us from neighbours. He used to warn me that he never wanted to see me playing with boys. I was too young to understand the reasons,” Wairimu says.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/reproductive-health/article/2001482541/poverty-ignorance-led-us-to-unsafe-abortions


I’m Ready to Talk About My Abortion

BY KERRY WASHINGTON
SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

In my late 20s, I made the difficult and very private decision to have an abortion. About a decade later, I played a character that was the first woman to be shown undergoing an abortion procedure on network television. As women, it is our right to choose what happens to our bodies, our lives, and our futures. It is also up to us to decide when, how, and with whom we share our stories.

While, as an actor, I was proud to portray a woman exercising her right to choose, in real life I never talked about my own abortion publicly. My shame and embarrassment inspired a private silence that hid my personal truth and made me complicit in a culture of secrecy that shames women, our bodies, our choices, and our power. As I was writing my memoir, however, I realized how important it is to speak openly about experiences that have been kept in the dark, because when we do so we liberate ourselves and each other.

Continued: https://time.com/collection/time100-voices/6316450/kerry-washington-abortion-story-book/


Her pregnancy was non-viable and her life was at risk but Oklahoma Law Prevented an Abortion

by Whitney Bryen
September 19, 2023

When she awoke on the couch in the early morning hours of Nov. 21, Magon Hoffman’s pajama pants were soaked in blood. What began as light bleeding the night before had turned severe. Hoffman assumed she was miscarrying.

But an ultrasound revealed it was Hoffman’s life that was in danger. At 14 weeks, the fetus seemed healthy, but Hoffman, 31, had one of the largest blood clots her doctor had ever seen and was at risk of going into shock or organ failure if it continued to grow.

Continued: https://oklahomawatch.org/2023/09/19/her-pregnancy-was-non-viable-and-her-life-was-at-risk-but-oklahoma-law-prevented-an-abortion/