Routledge Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women's Words (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

If you’ve had an abortion and are feeling isolated and vulnerable, Experiencing Abortion will remind you that you are not alone and that you must feel your emotions in order to accept your choice and heal. Each woman responds to abortion in her own way, yet, as this sensitive, insightful book shows, there are many similarities among women’s post-abortion emotions. Sharing in the firsthand, personal experiences of other women who speak for themselves in this book will help you come to terms with anguish, stress, grief, anger, or any other overwhelming emotions you might be feeling. Don’t go on ignoring or blocking out your feelings. Learn to incorporate your experience into your sense of self in a healthy way. By reading Experiencing Abortion, you will learn about the multiple feelings and reactions abortion can trigger, the process of accepting an abortion, and the struggle to control fertility without treating your body as an enemy. Offering you a safe, honest, and supportive environment in which to explore your feelings about your abortion, this book discusses many important topics, including: the way moods can overtake you after abortion how avoiding your experience can defer acceptance, which in turn leads to denial and guilt how pregnancy, abortion, and subsequent bleeding can affect your perception of your body the struggle to enjoy sex after your abortion your heightened awareness of gender after an abortion how your intimate relationships may change after an abortion the psychological reasons you may sometimes forgo birth control accepting yourself after a second abortionExperiencing Abortion will help women who have had an abortion understand that it is a complex physical and emotional experience that doesn’t necessarily end after a week or a month or a year. It will also help professionals in abortion facilities and therapists who offer pre- and post-abortion counseling understand how abortion affects each individual differently and how they might help women work through their feelings both before and after abortion. Partners, friends, and families will find this book helpful and informative as they try to help their loved one get through this sometimes difficult, even traumatic, experience. From the Author I am firmly pro-choice, but this book steers clear of ideology. I aim to help women block out slogans and to focus on what they feel after an abortion. Although thinking about politics can benefit some women in the aftermath, ideological absolutes too often interfere with what a woman allows herself to feel. I've endeavored to create space for every woman to reflect on what it meant to her to be pregnant and to end that pregnancy. People often think abortion experiences are solely about making decisions, but the reality tends to be much larger and more complex. If an abortion experience intertwines with other parts of our lives (for example, relationships with lovers, family, and friends), we can easily feel overwhelmed. Although millions of women have had abortions, we usually can't find each other when we go through this experience. A taboo on abortion prevents us from discussing it on a personal level. There seems to be no socially acceptable way to come forward and share our stories, to reassure each other that whatever we feel is okay. I've written "Experiencing Abortion" to help cut through this isolation. The voices of dozens of women fill this book. With access to their diverse experiences and collective wisdom, a reader will ideally feel part of a community. Having found plenty of others who have felt as she does, she will no longer feel alone. That's my fervent hope.