Pro-Choice writer describes “terrible sense of emptiness”
Pro-Choice author Miriam Claire on her abortion:
“I was performing as a singer in “Evita” in London in 1984 when I discovered that I was pregnant… By coincidence, a colleague with whom I shared a dressing room discovered that she was pregnant at around the same time. She and her husband were thrilled with their news, but she became distressed at the thought that I was going to have an abortion. In total sincerity, she asked me if I would consider having the baby and letting her adopt it. I was utterly distressed at the thought of possibly giving up a child of mine for adoption. I thanked my colleague for her offer and tried to explain to her that just as her maternal instinct prompted her to make such an offer, my maternal instinct could never let me accept it. While I do believe that adopting out a child can be an expression of maternal protectiveness and caring, it was not my choice…
sonogram of 8 week old preborn baby
My experience was a struggle because I had not anticipated the terrible sense of emptiness that followed the abortion. It is probably difficult for those who are against abortion or who have not had one to understand that one can have an abortion without regret and yet still feel a deep sense of loss.… Abortion produces many conflicting emotions that are not necessarily reconcilable or logical… It is virtually impossible to know how you are going to react physically and emotionally after the abortion.”
Miriam Claire The Abortion Dilemma: Personal Views on a Public Issue (New York: Insight Books, 1995) 11-12
