“When an article I wrote about women’s negative experiences of abortion appeared in The Canberra Times in 1997, a family planning figure hastily wrote in to dismiss postabortion trauma. Similar reactions surfaced in a feminist email discussion about my book that lasted several days. The project was treated with contempt by all but two participants. Someone suggested a quick online collection of “stories of women not hurt by abortion” to be compiled. This reaction unnecessarily pits women’s differing stories against each other and, once again, suggests there is only one authentic experiential reality when it comes to abortion.”
Melinda Tankard Reist, quoted in her book Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief after Abortion (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2007) 20
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