![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/IMG_0833-1.jpg\" "\\"IMG_0833-1\\"")
<\/p>\nRecently, I had an abortion in the United States. Lining the street in
\nfront of the clinic were a dozen or so protesters. They held up large
\nbanners with anti-abortion slogans, religious iconography, and images of
\ndead babies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just past the bulletproof security doors, the graphic nature of that
\nimagery haunted me in the waiting room. What would my abortion look
\nlike? I decided to secretly document my abortion with my cell phone.<\/p>\n
My intention in documenting and sharing my abortion is to demystify the
\nsensationalist images propagated by the religious and political right on
\nthis matter. The use of lifeless fetus photographs are a propaganda tool
\nin the anti-choice\/pro-choice debate in which women and their bodies are
\nused as pawns to push a cultural, political, and religious agenda in the
\nUnited States.<\/p>\n
At 6 weeks of pregnancy, my abortion looked very different than the
\nimages I saw when I entered the clinic that day. Experiencing my own
\nabortion and photographing the result was a sobering experience. As a
\nwoman, I reckon with the power of images every day. But after my
\nabortion, I realised images are literally being used as a weapon to
\npetrify and assault viewers into fear, shame, and isolation. The
\nprotesters’ heartless use of lifeless foetus images made me feel
\ncheated, lied to and manipulated. It was just propaganda: intended to
\nshake the core of my deepest biological, intellectual and emotional
\nfoundation.<\/p>\n
In the last month since launching thisismyabortion.com, I received a
\ndeluge of emails from men, women and couples all over the world
\nconfiding in me their own courageous and unique abortion stories. Some
\ntold tales of horrific self-inflicted abortions in countries where
\nabortion remains illegal. Others expressed sincere gratitude for my
\ndocumentation, either because it mirrored their own experiences of safe
\nabortions or, in some cases, because they had always associated abortion
\nwith the same grotesque images I had encountered while entering the
\nclinic. I was contacted by women in Turkey that feared that their right
\nto make a free choice for their body was potentially at risk. These are
\nwomen that stand in solidarity with the larger movement of women and men
\nthat hold the right to choose as a basic human right.<\/p>\n
I believe we are the majority, and we hold the power to demand the
\nright to make educated choices for our bodies and our families. I hope
\nthisismyabortion.com will be used as a tool to bring a fair, honest,
\nbalanced view of safe abortion. We, together, can take a stand for the
\ntruth, women’s rights and reproductive justice internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I had an abortion in the United States. Lining the street in front of the clinic were a dozen or so protesters. They held up large banners with anti-abortion slogans, religious iconography, and images of dead babies. Just past the bulletproof security doors, the graphic nature of that imagery haunted me in the waiting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":55993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[922],"tags":[8179],"class_list":["post-55992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-abortion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}