Editor’s note. I received a lot of feedback on yesterday’s post, “Rocker’s memoir tells of being haunted by her abortion, defends ‘right’ to abortion anyway.” It’s been retweeted and retweeted and retweeted.
The story was based a blurb for an upcoming book by Viv Albertine, who was the star of the 1970s all-girl punk band, “The Slits,” a group that was hugely influential in breaking through in a male-dominated industry.
Beatrice Fedor blogs at 400wordsforwomen.com. She has previously allowed us to re-run a couple of her eloquent posts.
This afternoon, Beatrice sent me an e-mail with her reaction to Albertine’s pain and regret over an abortion she had in the 1970s, and her eleven unsuccessful IVF treatments before she had a baby girl. Along the way Albertine also lost two babies, presumably to miscarriage.
Beatrice said it would be okay to reprint what she sent me:
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I just read your blog about that rocker woman who regrets abortion and is still pro-choice. I know it’s puzzling to you and to many people but it’s actually very common.
I’ve been through that “phase” too but it didn’t last as long for me. Let me explain.
Sometimes, women come to recognize that their abortion was wrong and get stuck there, while others advance on the path to healing.
It depends what kind of people you have in your life, how much you are attached to your wounds. It’s what I call the Abortion Stockholm Syndrome.
If the only people who were kind to her were pro-choice, she is not going to change. Maybe her only contact with people who lack compassion and empathy.
If she had no one in her life to speak the Truth in love, she won’t know it.
It’s hard to change. Even though some women recognize that they are wounded, the abortion rights ideology can become their comfort zone.