Abortion: Conversation over Conflict

In honor of Wednesday's House vote, I'd like to highlight a few fantastic resources from the Abortion Conversation Project. Each one dares to sidestep the politics of the abortion debate in favor of promoting genuine dialogue and reflection about what the issue means for us as individuals and as a society:

  • Pregnancy: Lose the Adjective! A thought-provoking essay by Margaret R. Johnston that makes a compelling case for dropping modifiers like "unwanted," "unplanned," and "unintended" from our discussions of pregnancy, since such terms often wind up obscuring the complexity of what it means to be pregnant.

In honor of Wednesday's House vote, I'd like to highlight a few fantastic resources from the Abortion Conversation Project. Each one dares to sidestep the politics of the abortion debate in favor of promoting genuine dialogue and reflection about what the issue means for us as individuals and as a society:

  • Pregnancy: Lose the Adjective! A thought-provoking essay by Margaret R. Johnston that makes a compelling case for dropping modifiers like "unwanted," "unplanned," and "unintended" from our discussions of pregnancy, since such terms often wind up obscuring the complexity of what it means to be pregnant.
  • Report from an Exploratory Meeting on Post Abortion Emotional Health. In 2003, the Abortion Conversation Project and Exhale convened a group of researchers, abortion providers, clergy, therapists, grassroots organizers, post-abortion service providers, and women who have had abortions. Dismayed at the current state of affairs – where (in their words) negative emotional experiences after abortion are often framed as evidence of the existence of "Post-Abortion Syndrome" and used to attack the legality of abortion, and positive emotional experiences are often used to justify women's right to legal abortion and simplify the complexity of decisions about parenthood and abortion – they wanted to start a nonjudgmental dialogue about the diversity of women's post-abortion experiences, making room for the psychological, the scientific, the social, and the spiritual. This is the report of their meeting.
  • Real Voices. Real Voices compiles excerpts from journals in abortion clinic waiting rooms, letters, and feedback forms, each highlighting the complexity of reproductive decision-making.
  • More conversation pieces are available here.