Seattle, Washington. My home. Home of strong coffee, flinging fish and raging liberal ideas-and raging liberal idiots. I am a stranger in a strange land here for sure. Enter attention-seeking Seattle hipster, Amelia Bonow, whose hashtag #Shoutyourabortion and Facebook post went viral over the weekend:
“I am telling you this today because the narrative of those working to defund Planned Parenthood relies on the assumption that abortion is still something to be whispered about. Plenty of people still believe that on some level — if you are a good woman — abortion is a choice which should accompanied by some level of sadness, shame, or regret. But you know what? I have a good heart and having an abortion made me happy in a totally unqualified way. Why wouldn’t I be happy that I was not forced to become a mother?”-Amelia Bonow
Don’t let her fool you. She is not a good woman. She is a foul-mouthed, emotionally bankrupt, pill-eating, overgrown child looking for attention. I will let her latest write-up in Salon do the talking there. I find her choice of words interesting however-including her “guilty admission” of being pregnant to which she and her friends all laughed or how she felt “gleeful” seeing her “authority figure” professor squirm when she told him that she was pregnant and needed an extension on her paper. Way to play the “powerful woman” card there, Amelia. So much for the “strong, empowered woman” who can handle anything life throws at you-except an impending due date for a college class! She goes on to discuss how she spent the weekend driving to Palm Springs and “eating pills, crying and laughing manically”. (We’re sooooo deep, aren’t we?) She recounts that she was “high on pills” throughout the procedure.
“The nurse called my name and smiled at me; I kissed my boyfriend, rose to my feet, and walked toward the end of a mistake.”
Her logic in this piece goes something like this: “Pregnancy is what happens when some people have sex and an abortion is what happens when a woman becomes pregnant and does not wish to procreate-if she’s lucky”. Lucky? Apparently, her followers feel “lucky”, too:
i've had two: both were difficult decisions, but, you know, MINE TO MAKE. thank you @ameliabonow and @thelindywest #ShoutYourAbortion
— Kary Wayson (@karywayson) September 22, 2015
So “lucky”, she had two abortions? Lucky would be NOT getting pregnant at all because you used birth control!
And look who’s joined the conversation:
Thank you @thelindywest and @ameliabonow for getting this going! Fearless women right here. #ShoutYourAbortion https://t.co/xfgLUrs1fE
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) September 21, 2015
Because, calling your professor to shirk your responsibilities claiming you’re “emotionally distraught”, pregnant and following it up with a four-day road trip/pill binge with your besties the week before your abortion is now “an act of courage.”
I set up #ShoutYourAbortion because I am not sorry, and I will not whisper | Lindy West http://t.co/XVUrwh1shR
— The Guardian (@guardian) September 22, 2015
Instead of conversations about weekend benders, calling the “clump of cells” a “non-baby”, how it doesn’t matter if its a woman’s first or third abortion, how abortion is a cure to an “oops”, a “mistake”, we should be having these conversations:
#ShoutYourAbortion I'd rather shout at the abortion industry about my best friend's suicide after her abortion.
— Lisa Graas ن (@CatholicLisa) September 22, 2015
My mom walked out of her abortion appt. so I could live. Don't shout for the ones you've silenced. #ShoutYourAbortion
— Christina M Bennett (@ChristinaMar81) September 22, 2015
If you shout "my body, my choice, not your business," while using my tax dollars to fund your abortion, it IS my business #ShoutYourAbortion
— chelsea (@chelsea_elisa) September 22, 2015
If you have had an abortion, #imsorryforyourloss. I will mourn your innocent baby, even if you won't. #ShoutYourAbortion
— Abby Johnson (@AbbyJohnson) September 22, 2015
#ShoutYourAdoption! Pro-lifers fight back against repulsive pro-abort hashtag [pics] http://t.co/dtFV18wkBz
— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) September 22, 2015
The Shout Your Abortion Facebook page has since been shut down. The Shout Your Abortion-Regret Facebook page is alive and well and you can read those women’s stories here.
Bonow and her friend, writer Lindy West may have pioneered the shoutmyabortion hashtag to reduce the stigma of abortion and encourage a dialogue. West also shouts her abortion:
My abortion was in '10 & the career I've built since then fulfills me & makes me better able to care for kids I have now. #ShoutYourAbortion
— Lindy West (@thelindywest) September 20, 2015
A woman such as Bonow as the poster child for shouting her abortion from the rafters with no regrets whilst being high on pills is not exactly doing the pro Planned Parenthood/pro-abortion crowd any favors. Bonow is not a hero. Unfortunately, the dark side of the noise loudmouth Bonow is making takes away from the actual conversations that should be happening. The heinous Center for Medical Progress videos, the traumatic impact of abortion on women to include depression and suicide, the simple fact that abortion should not be a method of birth control when there are other options available,the numbers of women who suffer from infertility who would love to adopt and the success stories of adopted children who would have otherwise been aborted. Walking into an abortion clinic high on pills to numb what little emotion you may have is not an act of valor. It’s time we see the great contradiction between shouting empowerment while stifling the cries of the innocent.
Jenny North says: Nice post Lisa. I think it all comes down to why you think you are here on Earth. If you think you should order your life around what would make you happy then you end up with a life lived selfishly. You also end up in a life with imperfect human constraints – because you don’t always know what will make you happy anyway. If instead you set goals and meet unforeseen challenges with grace, you will probably be much happier in the end. Happiness is a byproduct, not a destination.
Lisa Carr says: So true, Jenny. A byproduct–not a destination. If only these lost people saw that…
No, Amelia your abortion made you crazy and detached from the most basic human response…that of a mother to protect her child. You are damaged goods. You could work through this spiritual crisis but I see you are still stuck without any change other than to defensively cover your heart. You gals are hard as nails, a recognizable reaction to unresolved pain. Happy to say I won’t fall for your excuses.
Lisa Carr says: I think she was crazy and detached before the abortion. As I’ve said to my fellow Victory Girl, Amy (whose story is above), I fought tooth and nail through my pregnancy to stay healthy but my body wasn’t having it. At 7 and a half months, on Christmas Day after a BP of 196/117, my husband drove us to the hospital where the doctor told me that my internal organs were failing and our son’s heart rate was decelerating. I thought for one moment “what if we’ve tried to bring a life into this world in vain? What if we walked out of this hospital without our son?” I read stories and commentary from women such as Amelia Bonow, who willingly took drugs before walking into an abortion clinic to (gleefully) remove her “mistake” and I feel physically sick. Our son is now 9, in 4th grade, as smart as can be (stubborn, too but he gets that from both of us) with an awesome, hearty laugh and a twinkle in his eyes. We need to ShoutOurBlessings!
richard says: Two scenarios that actually happened. One of the abortions happened when this lady’s birth control pill failed because of an antibiotic she was taking. Because of the abortion, she was able to finish school, get a job, and then when she was able to care for and feed her children she had two great children.
The other one was a girl who had the boy friend from hell. Both were too young to get married or even dream of taking care of children. The pregnancy allowed her to finish school, find a really good boyfriend who became her husband, She got and still has a really good job that allows her to afford to raise her children who are really great kids.
if abortion had not been legal and safe, their lives would not have turned out nearly as well as they did.
Lisa Carr says: Hi Richard,
I see your point. I really do. And there are individuals who tell these stories every day and they are not offensive in the least bit.
I, personally, don’t agree with the concept of abortion. Twenty years ago, I felt differently because I was younger and because at that point in time, I never heard another human being’s heart beating inside of my body via ultrasound.
What, in my opinion, is disagreeable here is Bonow’s account. This Seattle artsy fartsy hipster queen being vulgar when she does not need to be to get her point across…(we don’t care how huge her boobs were or how often and when she had sex-irrelevant) and the blatant disregard and disrespect for a life she chose to end while she was under the influence of whatever substances she chose to ingest. This “deep stuff” of walking to an abortion clinic after a wild weekend is not “art” and to be honest, does not need to be celebrated. This is crap. This, unfortunately is how a generation depicts themselves-as being above, superior and smarter than those who have lived life a little (and not in a fantasy bubble) and it’s not doing us as a collective people in a great nation any favors. These young, easily influenced women who want to be like the “cool” people eat this stuff up and it replaces all common sense.
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