To learn more about the individual impact of the (de)legalization of abortion, Dr. Meera Shah shares intimate stories of individuals who have gotten abortions for all types of reasons in her novel. Dr. Shah is an Indian American abortion provider who discovered that many people have gotten an abortion in their lifetime but kept it a secret because of stigmas (Shah, 2020). She aims to take down this stigma by humanizing abortions. Through storytelling, individuals can provide more compassion to such a nuanced and divisive topic. After all, 1 in 4 women in America has received an abortion in their lifetime (Abortion is a Common Experience, 2017). Storytelling has the ability to change the narrative and memory around abortion in America. Abortion is not just political, but an everyday human issue. The stories range tremendously, meaning that everyone should be able to empathize with their experiences. Hearing these stories can help reshape society’s collective memory of abortion.
In Chapter 1, Sara is living in a cramped apartment with her partner and his children. They were already financially struggling when she realized she was pregnant. Sara was not sure if she wanted to be a mother, but getting pregnant was a confirmation that she did want to have kids one day, but this was not the day. In Texas, Sara was required to have an ultrasound and wait for 24 hours. Sara had already taken the time to make this decision confidently and felt tortured by the waiting period. Ironically enough, the Texas Rifle Association did not require any waiting period. After her abortion, she stayed with her partner who would end up getting arrested for physically abusing her. She ended up leaving the state to escape her relationship. She is glad that she had an abortion so she is not permanently tied to him.
In Chapter 3, Paige is a junior at the University of Michigan in 1972. Back then, there was little to no discussion of contraceptives. While she typically used a diaphragm, she didn’t use it once and tried to shake the sperm out of her. She got pregnant by her then-boyfriend. She knew she needed to finish college and graduate so having a baby was not an option. In 1972, Roe v Wade had not passed yet. Paige had to leave the state to go to New York for an abortion. Paige borrowed $200 from a neighbor (equivalent to $1200 today). She was immediately relieved after the procedure was done like she had gotten her life back, especially as a young woman. Paige would get pregnant again in 1975. This time, she considered keeping the child but decided she didn’t want to be a single mother and knew she couldn’t count on the father of the child. Her experience was not as pleasant the second time as she had a “horrible human being” of a doctor. Unlike her first pregnancy, sometimes she wonders what type of human her second pregnancy could have been. She doesn’t regret her decision but regrets that her birth control failed.
In Chapter 5, Mary is a Vietnamese American in her early 20s. She lives in NYC with her husband when she finds out she’s pregnant despite using condoms. When she was 26 weeks pregnant, her doctor tells her that the baby’s heart stopped beating and they would need to induce her labor. Her first pregnancy ended in a stillborn baby. She would go on to have a healthy son. Then, she was pregnant for the third time in her late 30s. She was in “geriatric” territory and opted for genetic testing, where she learned that her baby had Patau syndrome. Only 10% of babies with Patau make it past their first year and those who do face major health concerns. Mary wanted to stay pregnant and miscarry, but the doctor said there was still a good chance she would have to deliver. Sicken with grief, she chose to get an abortion, knowing that she wanted to have another baby. Now Mary is a mother to two young boys, and she says that her losses provided her with more gratitude for being a parent.
In a Buzzfeed article, Lieberman (2022) shares the story of Oliver, a trans man, who becomes pregnant. He chose to get an abortion because he was already struggling to support himself and knew that having an abortion was the right answer. Oliver’s experience is important to share when it comes to advocating for gender-inclusive language and adequate support for trans people regarding abortion rights. His story provides a partial memory of a larger abortion narrative. Often, people remember abortion as a women’s issue but by hearing individual stories of trans pregnant people, we can start to change our memory of abortion to a health issue that affects all genders.
In conclusion, each of these individuals’ stories is extremely unique to their circumstances, especially given race, class, age, and other factors. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when deciding to end a pregnancy. Each of these individuals chose to publicize their personal stories in hopes of helping American society better understand abortion as a human experience. Their stories became usable in shaping collective memory. Moreover, in many of these stories, there were obstacles to receiving appropriate health care, adding unpredictability to the memory of abortion rights. Having this unpredictable memory of inaccessibility is crucial to advancing abortion rights. Lastly, each individual felt many emotions of grief, relief, and loss after having an abortion as anyone would when they make a life-changing decision. Storytelling provides an avenue to process this experience while sharing it with a larger audience, thus serving as a processual memory. Publicizing a vulnerable moment like this gives these individuals the strength to further understand their emotions while also challenging a greater narrative of collective memory that fails to recognize the nuances and complexity of abortions.
By: Britney Hong
Works Cited:
American University. (2022, June 24). Roe v. Wade overturned: What it means, what’s next. [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www.american.edu/cas/news/roe-v-wade-overturned-what-it-means-whats-next.cfm.
Guttmacher Institute. (2017, January 17). Abortion is a common experience for U.S. women, despite dramatic declines in rates. Guttmacher Institute. https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abortion-common-experience-us-women-despite-dramatic-declines-rates.
Lieberman, H. (2021, June 2). Trans Men Have Abortions Too. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hallielieberman/trans-men-abortion-rights-roe
Shah, M. (2020). You’re The Only One I’ve Told. Flatiron Books.
Though I have not read the book myself, it seems to contain a good array of varying experiences with abortion. The culmination of these stories combines to make a whole, at the level where individual memory becomes cultural. So many of these stories are sure to strike those reading the book as similar to what they may have gone through, with the multitude of experiences there are shared. Seeing as America is a melting pot of people from different backgrounds, this book accurately represents the makeup of our country and therefore does a great job of including different cultural memories. I do wonder though, what the author would think about the impact of their storytelling is in a larger context. Was their intent to simply share these stories for a wider audience, or did they intend to stir up the taboo topic of abortion in the States and influence others in that larger context? Either way, this was a great read and very informative on the multitude of experiences that exist.
It seems Dr.Shah’s book takes into account a wide variety of public contexts for why people have abortions. The stories of the different people you chose to examine does a great job of showing how complex abortion and the abortion movement are. I love that you took a literary analysis approach for examining this topic. I think storytelling can be undermined a lot of the time, but it’s a great way to hear about individual experiences that provide a larger context for sociocultural issues. I like how you connected this to processual memory. In other ways, Dr.Shah’s book could be considered material memory that will be read for years to come. This was very insightful and I think it takes a unique approach for examining the memory and history behind abortion.
In my mind, storytelling is collective memory. The vernacular type, yes, but stories can sometimes be stronger or more impactful than history. This collection of personal stories accomplishes exactly that based on your writing, taking statistics and making them real and human. The book itself is an artifact of collective memory. Thanks for sharing!
I think collections of stories like this show that the issue of abortion is not as black and white as the dichotomy of “pro-life vs pro-choice” makes it seem. It’s a nuanced issue, which can be forgotten in the presence of politics. Bringing personal memories into a collective space brings that nuance back.