Glamour Examines Emotions, Stigma Associated With Abortion

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 19 Feb 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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Glamour magazine in its March issue features an article examining how many women feel reluctant to discuss their personal experiences with abortion. Through interviews with counselors, medical experts and women who have had abortions, Glamour found that many "agreed that women don't discuss how they decided whether or not to end a pregnancy -- how it felt and how they recovered, physically and emotionally; how they look back on their choice as time passes." According to Glamour, "The result is that millions of women grapple alone with the decision and the emotions that come afterward."

Glamour reports that one in three women will have at least one abortion by age 45, and "these women run the gamut of ages, races, backgrounds and beliefs." Deborah Oyer, owner and medical director of Aurora Medical Services in Seattle, said, "I've seen every type of woman in my office, from Catholics to Muslims to mothers with three kids." She added, "I have even treated someone I recognized -- because I'd seen her before protesting right outside my clinic."

Katherine O'Connell, an ob-gyn at Columbia University, said, "We've gone from doctors advertising abortion services in the 1900s and women openly demanding the right to abortion in the 1970s, to a time now when some women can't even admit to themselves that they're having an abortion, much less tell their loved ones." Glamour reports that the "culture-quaking political and religious debates" over abortion rights can make the issue "fee[l] too charged to discuss, even woman to woman." Aspen Baker -- co-founder of Exhale, a telephone help line for women who have had abortions -- said, "No one talks about abortion on a personal level -- there's too much stigma attached." The article also includes a series of questions for women to consider in deciding whether to have an abortion (Welch, Glamour, March 2009).

Glamour on its Web site also features profiles of eight women who had abortions and a set of frequently asked questions about the procedure (Glamour.com, 2/17).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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