It’s not often that people look at abortion as a “joyful” experience. For most people, being put into a situation where you have to undergo an abortion is always a tragedy, even for people who consider themselves to be “pro-choice.” While the most extreme of the pro-abortion advocates try to act as if getting an abortion is as small a matter as getting your teeth cleaned, most people are able to understand that abortion is a terrible thing.
For a woman to be in a situation where she feels she has no other choice but to kill her preborn child — that there is literally no other alternative — there is no celebrating. Even if you support abortion, there’s nothing joyful about women having to make that choice. But, again, there are those few people whose fanaticism for abortion is so great, that abortion is practically something to celebrate.
Fusion writer Kristen Brown is apparently one of those people.
In a post festooned with celebratory emojis, like smiley faces, popping champagne bottles, and party favors, Brown writes about her own choice to have an abortion, calling it a “joyful experience”.
According to Brown, she had just moved to Albany, New York and started a newspaper fellowship when she started dating a guy she met online. The relationship fizzled out quickly, but a few weeks later, she felt lonely and asked him to go out with her again. She says that she got drunk and had sex, and — of course — got pregnant. Brown said that he didn’t wear a condom, despite her asking him to. (She also puts the onus on him for not using a condom repeatedly throughout her article, but never takes responsibility for her own decision to still have sex without using protection.) So the very next day, she took drastic steps: she blocked his number and unfriended him on Facebook.
Brown called getting pregnant one of the darkest points in her life. She didn’t have much money, had no friends because she was in a new city, and thought her life was over. So she made an appointment at Planned Parenthood, got the abortion pill, and killed her baby. According to her, everything was “fine” after that, and went back to “normal”. She called it “empowering” and a “relief”, and sneers at the idea that women regret their abortions, because she didn’t, calling the idea “paternalistic”.
I will never forget the feeling of panic and terror that comes with the sensation that you are losing control of your own body. It feels like being invaded. You feel powerless, helpless, defenseless.
Certainly, for some women, the decision to get an abortion is difficult and going through with it can be equally traumatic. For me, though, it was neither. I never wavered in my decision and I have not once regretted it since.
The right to make that decision—to take control of my body and my life—allowed me to pursue the life I wanted, and to become the person that I wanted to be.
I wouldn’t call that dark or painful. Actually, I think I would call it a joy.
The ironic thing is that Brown never lost control of her body. She calls abortion taking control, pursuing the life that she wanted, but she had already done all of that. She willingly got drunk and had unprotected sex, and then acted as if her body had betrayed her by becoming pregnant, when, in actuality, it did exactly what it was supposed to do. A baby was created, an entirely new life, because of her actions. And because of her actions, the baby was killed. And while everything went swimmingly for Brown, she doesn’t mention how dangerous the abortion pill can be, especially at Planned Parenthood, where they like to use the pill off-label.
And while Brown laughs off the idea of paternalistic men trying to force overly emotional women into carrying babies they don’t want, the reality is that women quite often do regret their abortions. The risks that come with abortion prove it. Women who have abortions are at much higher risk for mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicidal behavior. Clearly, abortion isn’t always as joyful as Brown wants people to believe it is.
