Sunday Short: The Way It Was by Eleanor Cooney

Women of all kinds seek and have always sought abortion: married, single, in their twenties, thirties, and forties, teenagers. Some have no children, some have several already. Some never want children, some want children later. They are churchgoers, atheists, agnostics. They are morally upright pillars of the community, they are prostitutes. They're promiscuous, they're monogamous, they're recent virgins. They get pregnant under all kinds of circumstances: consensual sex, nonconsensual sex, sex that falls somewhere between consensual and nonconsensual. Some are drunk or using drugs, some never even touch an aspirin. Some use no birth control, some use birth control that fails.

Abortion is still such a controversial topic internationally for something that is, ultimately, the choice of one person. It's not really a secret, on that note, that I'm pro-choice, and this article by Eleanor Cooney provides a really interesting background into the legalities surrounding abortion in the United States. She's emphatic, and kind and, well, makes a whole lot of sense. She's fourthcoming about her own experience and how close she came to a dangerous backdoor abortion is both scary and rings so true. It's an important piece of writing in an time where, I think, talking about abortion is important.

You can read 'The Way It Was' over on Mother Jones here.