Power
The “You’re Wrong About” Podcast Published A Powerful Episode About Abortion
“It’s important to talk about the not-tragedy stories.”
The You’re Wrong About podcast, hosted by journalist Sarah Marshall, released a topical and important episode called “Your Abortion Stories” on Oct. 17. It’s a collection of voice messages Marshall received after putting a call out on Twitter asking people to talk about their abortion experiences.
In light of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Marshall said now is a “better time than ever to talk about abortion.” And her listeners seemed to agree: She received more than six hours’ worth of messages that were whittled down to 45 minutes of stories from people ranging from single 20-year-olds and three-time moms in their late 30s to women in the UK, Nigeria, and beyond.
“One of the themes in so many of the stories that you sent in was that the abortion wasn’t traumatic, the stigma around the abortion was traumatic,” Marshall said in her intro. “Here at You’re Wrong About we love abortion and we accept that trauma is part of life, but we want to work on it. We want to make that part better.” For this episode, the podcast turned itself into a platform for listeners to connect.
The first speaker shared that they had an abortion when they were 24. “There wasn’t anything spectacular or tragic about it. I just didn’t want to have a baby,” they said. “I had just started a new job, moved to a new city, bought a house, and all I saw when I saw that positive pregnancy test was my dreams dying. The moment that I realized I could have an abortion, that I didn’t have to have a baby, I felt a huge sense of relief. It allowed me a beautiful career, it allowed me to have kids when I was ready and happy about it.
“I do think it’s important to talk about the not-tragedy stories,” they went on to say. “I don’t think you should have to have a tragedy or a dire circumstance in order to have an abortion. You should just be able to have an abortion if you don’t want to have a baby.”
The third speaker, whose Plan B pill failed due to her weight, said her experience felt “right out of a movie.” She was in a friend’s bathroom when she spotted tampons on the back of the toilet and, in that moment, realized it had been “so long” since she’d needed to use one. “I knew it right then and there,” she said. “Call it women’s intuition. Call it intuition. I knew I was pregnant.” The caller elected to have a surgical abortion, which she said ended up being easy and quick. She added that she had no doubt about what she wanted to do: “I got the abortion, haven’t looked back even a single day since.”
The fourth speaker, a woman in her late 30s with three kids, said she never imagined having an abortion or ever gave it much thought. When she found out she was pregnant, she said she immediately knew she didn’t want to go through pregnancy again. “I loved my family just the way it was and I loved myself and who I was becoming in my late 30s,” she said. “I chose abortion at age 38, and it changed my life. Now I talk about abortion every single day. I help other people process their abortion ... It’s become a gift in my life to be able to understand something that I never anticipated being a part of my experience.”
