Much has been written lately about Ms. magazine’s recently announced “I have had an abortion” campaign — a patently obvious attempt at a response to forums such as the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, through which legions of women have spoken publicly about their profoundly negative abortion experiences. Julia Gorin has a particularly insightful column in yesterday’s OpinionJournal in which she offers an idea to counter the counter-campaign. Her column begins:
The Web site of Ms. Magazine–yes, it still exists–is calling on readers to sign a petition: “I have had an abortion. I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women’s reproductive freedom.” Well, so much for the right to privacy. If Ms. readers hadn’t had so many abortions, there might be more Ms. readers. As for the rest of us, here’s a petition we could all sign: “I wasn’t aborted.” Having narrowly escaped being aborted, I’d be the first in line. Like most Soviet-era fetuses conceived in Russia by couples who were already parents, I was scheduled for abortion as a matter of course. In a society where abortion was the only form of birth control, it wasn’t uncommon to meet women who had double-digit abortion counts. Often a couple would schedule the appointment before they even stopped to remember that they wanted a second child. My husband, also a second-born, and I were lucky to have been two such afterthoughts, each brought into the world thanks to one of two parents’ change of heart.
Also noteworthy is this paragraph:
We don’t have a crystal ball, but there’s someone who does, and there is a reason for every stork He sends along. I am religiously illiterate, but I have come to understand on the most visceral level why pregnancies are called “blessings”–even if, as often as not, the blessing comes in disguise.
Amen to that. Read the whole thing.
