magazine+and+diary+entry+padua

=Abortion: The Serious Health Decision Women Aren’t Talking About Until Now= == What do these women have in common? They’ve all had an abortion—and so, say the statistics, have many women //you// know. Odds are they never said a word about it to you: Abortion is, in 2009, a topic relegated to political debates and picket lines. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, now is the time for more openness and understanding. == February 2, 2009 **by** [|Liz Welch]

More about abortion
It’s 10 A.M. on a sunny day in Seattle and 25-year-old Anna* is sitting on the end of a gynecological exam table, naked except for her baggy gray T-shirt and the blue paper blanket draped over her lap. Her body is trembling but not from cold—she’s pregnant and she’s scared. Deborah Oyer, M.D., the owner and medical director of Aurora Medical Services, where Anna is about to have an abortion, asks Anna to put her feet in stirrups. “The more you relax, the less pressure and pain you will feel,” she says. Dr. Oyer dilates Anna’s cervix and turns on the vacuum aspiration machine. She inserts a tube through Anna’s cervix, and a gentle whirring sound fills the room. She barely has to raise her voice to explain, “The cramping you feel is totally normal.” Anna lets out a few gasps before Dr. Oyer clicks off the machine, signaling the end of the five-minute procedure. “We’re all done,” Dr. Oyer says. The young woman groans and holds her stomach, but still smiles a bit. “Really?” she says. “That was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.” Dr. Oyer isn’t surprised by Anna’s reaction. “I hear that refrain almost daily when I perform abortions,” she says later. “It’s as if women expect me to come at them with whirling knives.” In the end there’s little drama to the procedure, but that doesn’t make it a simple experience. How could it be, when abortion inspires culture-quaking political and religious debates and feels too charged to discuss, even woman to woman? “No one talks about abortion on a personal level—there’s too much stigma attached,” says Aspen Baker, the cofounder of Exhale, an after-abortion counseling help line. In a perfect world, no woman would ever //need// to end a pregnancy. But in reality, one in three women will have at least one abortion by the time she is 45, and these women run the gamut of ages, races, backgrounds and beliefs. “I’ve seen every type of woman in my office, from Catholics to Muslims to mothers with three kids,” says Dr. Oyer. “I’ve even treated someone I recognized—because I’d seen her before, protesting right outside my clinic.” Yet in //Glamour// interviews, counselors, medical experts and more than two dozen women who have had the procedure agreed that women don’t discuss how they decided whether or not to end a pregnancy—how it felt and how they recovered, physically and emotionally; how they look back on their choice as time passes. The result is that millions of women grapple alone with the decision and the emotions that come afterward. Adamantly pro-choice women may be shocked by their own sadness about having an abortion whereas extremely religious women may be stunned by their sense of relief; both reactions, experts say, are normal. “We’ve gone from doctors advertising abortion services in the 1900s and women openly demanding the right to abortion in the 1970s, to a time now when some women can’t even admit to themselves that they’re having an abortion, much less tell their loved ones,” says Katharine O’Connell, M.D., an ob-gyn at Columbia University. Nearly all the women //Glamour// spoke to said they kept their abortion a secret. “I had an abortion last May and, aside from my boyfriend, went through the entire experience alone,” says 22-year-old Lindsay. “My roommate found me bawling at home one day and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ I told her and she threw her arms around me and said, ‘I had one too.’” Every woman who faces the abortion decision deserves a friend’s arms around her—as well as factual, unbiased information about what lies ahead. Let the plainspoken stories and advice on these pages open the dialogue.
 * ===[|My Baby Decision]===
 * ===[|This Woman Live Tweeted Her Abortion]===
 * ===[|Pro-Life Ad To Air During Super Bowl]===
 * ===[|Expecting Moms That Talk Publicly About Abortion: Right Or Wrong?]===
 * ===[|It's Time to Make Peace on Abortion]===

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Diary entry

Monday, August 21, 1831 My man, Hark, didn't come home last night and I can only guess he was out with Nat again. He was so excited when he left Sunday. He said something big was going to happen, a Jubilee or something. Sometimes it scares me when I think about the hold Nat has on my man. Hark is so much bigger and stronger than him, but Nat seems to have a powerful spell over Hark. Nat is our spiritual leader: we call him the Prophet. All those strange prophesies that Nat dreams up--blood on the leaves, a dark sun, bumps on his head--only make Hark think that Nat is a messenger from God. Hark talks constantly about a Jubilee and war and killing whites and a black takeover. I'm so afraid! The whites--they have so much power, guns and ammunition--it scares me! Even though I hate my bondage and fear that the master could sell my children away, I cannot condone murder. I was so worried about Hark I could not sleep. I heard the sound of horses riding through the night. Oh, my God, they were coming and Hark was leading the charge. I ran out of our quarters and I could see Hark's strong arms yielding an axe and breaking down the front door of Master's house. I heard Master and Miss Sally scream in terror. I heard muffled sounds from Master Putnam and Joel Westbrook. The soldiers were so jubilant that I thought they might be a little drunk. How strange--Nat called out all the orders but he would not do the dirty work of killing the white folks! Then Nat marched his men around in military routine. They seemed so proud of what they had done. I hid behind the bushes, frozen in fear. I know that Hark is brave and strong, and I know he hated being owned by another man, but Master was kind. Some of Nat's followers seemed quite upset and a few were throwing up. I guess that killing made them sick. The army left and headed for the Francis farm. Then I heard baby Travis crying. I thanked the Lord that they had forgotten about him. I am his nanny and I love him like I love my own. I was coming out of hiding to get the baby when I heard the beat of horse hooves heading back to the Travis' house. It was Will and Henry. They ran into the house and then I heard the baby stop crying. Oh, precious Jesus, they killed my baby Travis! He was innocent! What will happen to us? Later in the day, the whites came to the house. They were upset and scared. We were frightened too. They asked me where Hark was and I said I had not seen him. They locked us in the barn. I guess they thought we might hurt them. Rumor has it that the army has moved from farm to farm killing all white folks in their path. God bless us all! Ruby Travis