‘Shout Your Abortion’ trends on Twitter again after leaked SCOTUS draft opinion on Roe v. Wade
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People have flooded social media in outrage in the hours after Politico published a leaked draft opinion indicating on Tuesday the Supreme Court’s intention to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion rights. Woman after woman, activist after activist, person after person shared their stories of what led them to have an abortion. They used the hashtag “shout your abortion.”
In a sentence: Their stories are powerful.
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Writer and editor Brooke Brannon tweeted: “I had an abortion when I was 28, unmarried, and not ready to have a child. I did not regret it then and do not regret it now. #shoutyourabortion”
While many are sharing their stories in an attempt to remove the shame and stigma attached to getting an abortion, others chose to share their stories anonymously via a platform dubbed Shout Your Abortion. The organization, a nonprofit, has the mission of “working to normalize abortion through art, media, and community events all over the country.”
Amelia Bonow founded the organization with social justice activist Lindy West after Republicans tried to defund Planned Parenthood in 2015. Bonow wrote in an Oprah.com essay that she shared her abortion story on Facebook then. “On September 19, 2015, I blew up my life,” Bonow wrote. “Not intentionally—I was in Seattle, looking forward to finishing a master’s program in mental health counseling. In fact, I was supposed to be writing a paper when I found out that the House of Representatives had voted to defund Planned Parenthood.”
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Bonow continued:
I kind of unraveled, sitting on my couch crying, wondering, Who’s standing up for the clinic workers? And for women who have abortions? I opened Facebook and, without thinking, wrote, “Like a year ago, I had an abortion at Planned Parenthood…and I remember this experience with a nearly inexpressible level of gratitude.” I hit Post 153 words later, and everything changed.
She said after posting on Facebook, people responded with their own abortion stories, and aided by a screenshot from West, Bonow’s post went viral.
“Over the next couple of days, tens of thousands of women flooded social media to talk about their abortions. And I received abuse and threats; one site released my home address,” Bonow wrote. “I was inundated by media requests and had some tough conversations— my conservative 93-year-old grandmother wasn’t thrilled to hear Glenn Beck talking about me on his radio show.
“But after we discussed it for an hour on the phone, even she said she was proud of me.”
If you would like to share your story about abortion, please feel free to do so in the comments.
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