The “Shout Your Abortion” social media movement continued to gain exposure in last month’s issue of “O” magazine.
The July issue of Oprah Winfrey’s women’s lifestyle magazine featured a column by Amelia Bonow, the founder of the movement that encourages the normalization of abortion through sharing personal experiences.
In September of 2015, Bonow began the movement with a Facebook post discussing her gratitude for her abortion with the accompanying hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion.
“It struck me that the times I’d ranted about abortion rights, I hadn’t actually invoked my own experience,” Bonow said. “On some level, I’d internalized the stigma—though I honestly wasn’t ashamed. Then why hide? It wasn’t out of character for me to disclose something so personal online. What was out of character was my silence.”
“[W]hen I found out that the House of Representatives had voted to defund Planned Parenthood. I kind of unraveled,” she continued.
“I opened Facebook and, without thinking, wrote, ‘Like a year ago, I had an abortion at Planned Parenthood…and I remember this experience with a nearly inexpressible level of gratitude.’ I hit Post 153 words later, and everything changed.”
Within a day, friends and strangers alike began posting their own abortion stories with the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion, and the movement went viral.
Today, stories from the Shout Your Abortion website include: “I still say it was one of the smartest decisions I ever made,” “Now I have a good life,” “I’m not ashamed and I’m not sorry,” and “A choice that doesn’t really haunt me at all.”
Bonow explains that Shout Your Abortion is “a legit organization,” and will be releasing a book titled Shout Your Abortion this November.
“Anti-choice politicians have dominated the dialogue because many people think they don’t know anyone who’s had an abortion,” Bonow added. “But nearly one in four women has, and 95 percent have reported feeling that it was the right decision.
“The anti-choice movement wants it to be terrifying to speak the truth, because we can’t advocate for something we can’t say out loud. But the more of us who speak out, the clearer it becomes that all sorts of people have abortions, including people you love.”
Pro-life campaigns such as the Silent No More Awareness campaign also work to encourage people to share their stories of abortion publicly.
But instead of working to normalize abortion, these campaigns work to “expose and heal the secrecy and silence surrounding the emotional and physical pain of abortion.”
“Long ago, pro-life advocates recognized the power of individual people and their stories in the abortion debate,” LifeNews writes.
“The Silent No More Awareness campaign is just one example of the many pro-life storytelling outreaches.
“It encourages people who experienced pain and regret after their abortions to share their stories publicly, and its website documents thousands of stories of mothers, fathers, grandparents and others who experienced deep pain and remorse because of unborn babies’ abortion deaths.”
