Why now?

This project provides a way to encourage and support women who want to raise their voices and tell their stories. This project does this at time in US history when violence against abortion providers is increasing and when the actual and rhetorical attacks on abortion providers and the women who seek their services demands an honest and meaningful response.

Each year approximately 6 million women in the United States become pregnant. Nearly 1 million have abortions and nearly 1 million experience miscarriages and stillbirths. More than 4 million give birth.

As a result of the anti-abortion movement there has been a tendency to disconnect women's experiences, creating the illusion that there are two kinds of women: those who have abortions and “murder” their babies those who have babies.

The truth is that the vast majority of women who have abortions are already or will someday also be mothers. 61 percent of women who have abortions are already mothers. By the age of 45, 84% of all women in the United States will have become pregnant and given birth and 43% will have had an abortion. What this means is that most women who have abortions also have babies, and may also experience miscarriages or stillbirths over the course of the reproductive lives. How they give birth may also vary over the course of their reproductive lives. (vaginal birth, cesarean-surgery).

Even though the same women who have abortions are the ones who give life – and provide the vast majority of care for the lives of those around them— the anti abortion movement nevertheless portrays the women who have abortions and the people who help them as murderers, baby-killers, people who commit torture, like Hitler and other genocidal maniacs. Legalized abortion, they claim has lead to a “culture of death.”

One of the key successful strategies of the movement to decriminalize abortion was women willing to speak out about their experiences with illegal abortion. Today, in the wake of Dr. George Tiller's murder, women and families once again are speaking out and telling their stories about having had an abortion. See Share your late-term abortion story, and I’m not sorry.

There are many reasons, though, why women are reluctant to tell their abortion stories. For some, this reason may include the fact that their abortion story alone does not represent their lives in general or their reproductive lives in particular.

NAPW believes that we can challenge demonizing rhetoric and a distorted vision of women’s live by enabling women to tell their whole reproductive story.

If you have had an abortion and have given birth (vaginal, by c-surgery, in hospital or somewhere else,) experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth, adopted or raised a child - tell us your story with a picture, a sign, or a 1 minute or less video and we will post it.

We recognize that speaking out has risks and that some people may not want to reveal their identity or that of members of their family. You are welcome to submit without revealing your identity. See for example how some people have done this on iamdrtiller.com. We also recognize that people have a wide range of feelings about all of their experiences relating to pregnancy. We do not believe that there is a right way to feel. We do, however believe that there is value to speaking out if you can.

Speaking out and telling your story will not only give you a chance to share the full range of your experiences, but we hope that it will also help to change the debate, challenging the notion that women who have abortions and those who have babies are different, making it hard to label mothers murderers, and showing that the women who are accused of creating a “culture of death” are doing anything but that.

The vast majority of women who have abortions are also mothers. And even though the same women who have abortions are the ones who give life, anti-abortion activists portray us as murderers, baby killers, and worse.

It's time to tell our story:
the whole story.

If you have had an abortion and have given birth (vaginally, by cesarean surgery, in a hospital or somewhere else) experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth, adopted or raised a child - tell us your story with a picture, a sign, a 1 minute or less video and we will post it.