Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women's Words

Description

If you've had an abortion and are feeling isolated and vulnerable, Experiencing Abortion will remind you that you are not alone and that you must feel your emotions in order to accept your choice and heal. Each woman responds to abortion in her own way, yet, as this sensitive, insightful book shows, there are many similarities among women's post-abortion emotions. Sharing in the firsthand, personal experiences of other women who speak for themselves in this book will help you come to terms with anguish, stress, grief, anger, or any other overwhelming emotions you might be feeling. Don't go on ignoring or blocking out your feelings. Learn to incorporate your experience into your sense of self in a healthy way.By reading Experiencing Abortion, you will learn about the multiple feelings and reactions abortion can trigger, the process of accepting an abortion, and the struggle to control fertility without treating your body as an enemy. Offering you a safe, honest, and supportive environment in which to explore your feelings about your abortion, this book discusses many important topics, including: the way moods can overtake you after abortion how avoiding your experience can defer acceptance, which in turn leads to denial and guilt how pregnancy, abortion, and subsequent bleeding can affect your perception of your body the struggle to enjoy sex after your abortion your heightened awareness of gender after an abortion how your intimate relationships may change after an abortion the psychological reasons you may sometimes forgo birth control accepting yourself after a second abortionExperiencing Abortion will help women who have had an abortion understand that it is a complex physical and emotional experience that doesn't necessarily end after a week or a month or a year. It will also help professionals in abortion facilities and therapists who offer pre- and post-abortion counseling understand how abortion affects each individual differently and how they might help women work through their feelings both before and after abortion. Partners, friends, and families will find this book helpful and informative as they try to help their loved one get through this sometimes difficult, even traumatic, experience. Experiencing Abortion A Weaving of Women's Words Copyright Contents Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Responding to the Changes Chapter 1. Moving Through Moodiness What Triggers the Feelings Using Emotions or Logic in Thinking About an Abortion Working Through the Feelings Chapter 2. Coping with Stress and Regaining Control Managing What Feels Unmanageable When Other Problems Become Entangled Trying to Control Life's Vagaries Chapter 3. The Empowering Force of Anger Anger About the Relations Between Men and Women Anger at Clinic Staff Anger at the Antiabortion Movement and Catholicism Anger at a General Lack of Support Anger at the Situation and at Ourselves The Dangers of Unresolved Anger Resolving Anger Chapter 4. Allowing Ourselves to Grieve the Losses Losses Sustained in the Abortion Experience The Challenges of Abortion Grief Resolving Grief Chapter 5. Relief: Now and Later When Immediate Fears Dissipate Relief About Being Child-Free When Unforeseen Circumstances Confirm Our Choices Part II: Working Toward Acceptance Chapter 6. Lifting the Veil of Denial How Denial Feels Using Denial in Each Stage of the Experience Breaking Through Denial Arriving at the Truth Chapter 7. A New Self Emerges How Do I Feel About Myself Now? Who Am I, Now That I Have Had an Abortion? How Does an Abortion Fit into My Life? Chapter 8. Feeling Sure of the Decision Does Abortion Have Moral Considerations? Guilt About Our Role as Women Resolving Guilt Chapter 9. In the Mind's Eye: What the Fetus, Pregnancy, and Abortion Mean to Us How We See the Fetus Different Views of Pregnancy How We See Abortion It Is All Relative Part III: Our Bodies–Friends or Enemies? Chapter 10. Making Peace with Our Bodies The Procedure: Innocuous or Invasive? How We Feel About the Bleeding Disliking Our Bodies After an Abortion Feeling Alienated from Our Bodies Trying to Connect with Our Bodies Liking and Accepting Our Bodies After Abortion Chapter 11. Preventing Pregnancy, Preserving Pleasure Using Birth Control Diligently After an Abortion The Frustration of Birth Control Failures Sex and the Fear of Pregnancy After Abortion Overcoming Fears of Pregnancy and Enjoying Sex Chapter 12. Ending More Than One Pregnancy Accepting Multiple Abortions into Our How It Feels to Keep Having Abortions Why We Might Have Multiple Abortions Part IV: When Relationships Shift Chapter 13. Breaking Through Silence Is Having an Abortion Mainstream? Puncturing the Silence Chapter 14. Family: When We Confront Our Biggest Fans and Harshest Judges Telling Our Parents and Seeking Their Support When an Abortion Sparks Feelings About Certain Family Members Chapter 15. Friends: When Pregnancy and Abortion Test Platonic Ties Conflicts That Abortion Can Create in Friendships Bonding with Friends Because of an Abortion Chapter 16. Partners: When the Crisis Highlights a Relationship's Strengths and Weaknesses How Involved We Want Our Partners To Be How the Experience Tests the Relationship How the Abortion Affects Subsequent Relationships Chapter 17. Gender Awareness: When Feelings About Women and Men Change Feeling Closer to Women Feeling Disillusioned with Men Feeling Warmly Toward Men and Alienated from Women Improving Gender Relations Part V: Moving On Epilogue: Feeling Better After Abortion Changing the Experience of Abortion Recommended Reading Index