this was the very first instance of someone putting their abortion story on the internet that i was ever aware of.  i was working in abortion services when i came across it and i was very excited about it.  myabortion.tumblr.com a.k.a. what to expect when your aborting boasts the tagline “I’m 23, I’m knocked up. I’m not keeping it. You can fuck yourself Judd Apatow.”  as it indicates, it’s VERY straightforward, this young women is not holding anything back.  rereading it before this post i am actually kind of amazed at how savvy she is.  she says that she googled around for abortion blogs, hoping to get some information and only found anti-abortion propaganda so she decided to blog about the experience in the hopes that someone might find her blog if they needed info.  it’s not particularly journalistic but very opinionated and real.  i’m glad to read her raw, unedited posts, but i am bummed out that she didn’t have the best of experiences at an organization that is very close to my heart.

realistically i know that it is often the case that people on the front lines of not for profit healthcare don’t or can’t always give the best healthcare in the moment, for so many reason.  Inevitably the clinicians, physicians and clinic assistants are all working for little pay, with major time constraints and without lunch.  some days are 12 hours or even longer.  for me, working in abortion services was significantly about providing a positive experience for the folks who came in needing services, but i know that at times it was very difficult to give all that it took to provide excellent service.  and i was extremely lucky to work with such bad ass, kind, strong people.  in retrospect i wish there was a ab services version of the student evaluation…….

there were a few inaccuracies that i noted, which is totally understandable, she is the patient not the clinician and it’s not actually her responsibility to explain the medical side of things.  but just for the record she incorrectly explains that folks with rh negative blood are required to take a shot in order for the pain medication to work when in fact they are required to have a shot of rhogam because there is a likelihood that the fetus’ blood will be rh positive, the opposite of yorus.  if that were the case your body would treat it as an invader and manufacture antibodies against it which could compromise your health and the health of a future pregnancy.

in any case, this author is no holds barred and serves up, along with her personal abortion story,  resources on abortion in pop culture, advice and other gems such as the abortion recovery kit.  definitely required reading.