A social-media campaign called "Shout Your Abortion" is urging women who have undergone an abortion to demonstrate "the profound political power of defying shame" by refusing to feel guilty about the killing of a child.
A book promoting the campaign, featuring the stories of 43 woman and their abortions, declares in the foreword, "We're not sorry," reports Christian News.
"Abortion is good for women, families, and communities, and the proof is reflected in our own lives," writes Lindy West in the foreword to "Shout Your Abortion."
"Many of us have our careers or our children because of our abortions. Some of us would never have survived our abusers or our addictions without our abortions."
A website for the book, edited by Seattle bartender Amelia Bonow and Emily Nokes, states defiantly: "Abortion is normal. Our stories are ours to tell. This is not a debate."
West writes in the foreword that one in four "of us have had lives that were determined in monumental ways by our abortions, and the vast majority of us do not regret our decisions."
"But if nobody will admit they've had an abortion, we aren't able to illustrate the connection between having an abortion and living a better life."
Removing 'unwanted detritus from your life'
The "Shout Your Abortion" campaign began in 2015 in response to the House of Representatives voting to defund Planned Parenthood, Christian News reported. An angry Bonow posted her abortion story on Facebook. West then posted it on Twitter, adding the hashtag #shoutyourabortion.
Others responded to the tweet with stories of their own.
Bonow later wrote an article for Salon titled "My Abortion Made Me Happy: The Story That Started the #shoutyourabortion Movement."
"The procedure I had," she wrote, "is commonly referred to as a Vacuum Aspiration, which tickles me because vacuuming is a thing you do in order to remove unwanted detritus from your life, and aspirations are hopes for your future, which can be destroyed by having children you don't want."
Bonow concluded asserting that "we have all been brainwashed to believe that the absence of negative emotions around having an abortion is the mark of an emotionally bankrupt person."
"It's not. I have a good heart and my abortion made me happy."
Oprah's conundrum
Bonow and others conducted a "Bible Belt Abortion Storytelling Hour" tour earlier this year in the South emphasizing "abortion is normal" and urging women to tell their stories.
She says she wears the word "abortion" on her clothing most days and finds it regularly prompts conversations from people with abortion experiences.
A writer for the pro-bono legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, Maureen Collins, pointed out in August that Oprah endorsed the "Shout Your Abortion" campaign.
But this month, in an interview with People magazine, Oprah thanked her mother for choosing not to abort her. Her mother, who died Thanksgiving day, was 18 years old and impoverished when she became pregnant with the future celebrity.
Collins commented that if the "Shout Your Abortion" campaign "was really about truth, it would share the stories of the thousands of women who deeply regret their abortion."