WHAT IS My Abortion, My Life?

My Abortion, My Life is a public awareness campaign to end the silence and shame surrounding abortion. Our goal is to promote a new dialogue, one that shifts the conversation from the rhetorical to the experiential, from the language of politics to the language of real women and men. Only through sharing our truths about abortion can we truly support women’s full range of reproductive options.

My Abortion, My Life is intended to get people talking about abortion in a different way. It’s about sharing our real life experiences about abortion. It’s about creating a new language around abortion. It’s about learning to listen to stories about real life abortion experiences with compassion and respect. It’s about starting the long process of de-stigmatizing abortion in our society.  

Why Do We Need an Abortion Awareness Campaign?

The bitter debate over abortion hasn’t let up in the decades since Roe v. Wade made it legal. But while there’s a lot of talk, there’s little truth about the place of abortion in real women's lives. The barrage of misinformation about abortion and the women who have them from the "pro-life" side has created a culture of shame and secrecy and stigmatizes women. Pro-choice advocates spend their energy defending abortion rights and access and correcting false claims about the legal and medical realities of abortion.

Meanwhile, the real women who are trying to do the best they can to manage their families and futures are left out of the conversation. Approximately 50 million women have had legal abortions since 1973, or about one in three women of reproductive age. It is a decision that women make for many personal and valid reasons—not a topic for political debate.

The truth is that abortion is a normal and necessary part of many women’s lives. And the best truth-tellers are the women who have had abortions and the people in their lives who have been impacted by their abortion experiences.

The Campaign

To achieve our goal of promoting a new dialog about abortion we’re creating a variety of “safe spaces” for women and the people in their lives to talk about their abortion experiences. These include this website, where you can go to Sharing Our Stories to read other people’s stories and contribute your own. There are also many opportunities to have a face-to-face conversation—at forums, open houses, and informal gatherings. We hope that a wide variety of audiences will participate, from friends and families, to student groups, book clubs, and other groups, to clergy, to medical, mental health, and other professionals. Check out Campaign Events & Activities if you want to join a conversation and Getting Involved if you want to start a conversation yourself.

Events and activities are currently planned through May of 2011, ending in a public speak-out, but we hope to stimulate a conversation that extends far beyond.

Throughout the campaign, we’ll ask our audiences to sign a One-in-Three pledge, a commitment to start an abortion conversation with at least three other people in their lives.