There Aren't "Good" and "Bad" Abortions

It's great to hear people pushing back against restrictions on abortion by telling their own stories about why they ended a pregnancy. And some of the stories are gutwrenching: rape, incest, health risks that threaten the life of the pregnant person, fatal fetal defects. It would take a heart of stone to tell these people that they should be denied access to basic health care and forced to give birth. The danger of these stories, though, is that they risk presenting some abortions as more justifiable than others. Your pregnancy might kill you? "Good" reason. You just don't want to be pregnant? "Bad" reason.

Once someone decides that some abortions are okay and others aren't,  it's easy to jump to the idea that some people should be allowed to have them and others shouldn't. Even doctors can fall into that trap – a 2016 study found that some doctors were more likely to agree to perform abortions when their patients behaved in certain ways, like being upset about ending the pregnancy, feeling guilty about not using birth control or experiencing contraceptive failure, and talking about how much they want children. And of course, we've all seen the political fallout of thinking that some abortions are more acceptable than others. 

Women Help Women believes that your reasons for wanting to end your pregnancy are no one's business but your own. You don't have to prove that you deserve to make that decision. You deserve it just because you're a person with the right to control your own body. And if you choose self-managed abortion, we'll share the information you need to use the abortion pill correctly and safely, without judgement. Because we trust that whatever your reason is, your decision is the right one for you.