For Those Who’ve Miscarried, Pro-Choice Rhetoric Can Be Triggering
I have a very clear memory of the first time I ever saw my son. It was a sweltering July morning and I was wearing a cream-colored sun dress with a cute crocheted neckline. My face was carefully made up to hide the dark circles under my eyes and the pink blotches on my cheeks — telltale signs that I’d been up all night crying. I was 12 weeks pregnant, and I was certain that there was something very wrong with the baby.
I had spotted on and off throughout my first trimester, sometimes quite heavily. My doctor told me that it was all within the range of normal and that I would find out at the 12-week scan if everything was all right. I remember begging her to schedule an earlier ultrasound for me, but for whatever reason, she couldn’t or wouldn’t. She just said that if the bleeding was heavy enough, I should go to the emergency room, but even then there wasn’t much they could do if I was miscarrying. I would just have to deal with it.
I’ve been pro-choice for as long as I can remember. My mother had been on the board of our local Planned Parenthood when I was growing up, and I’d had several friends in high school and university who had terminated pregnancies. When challenged on my beliefs, I’d throw out the same pro-choice arguments I’d heard other people make: that it wasn’t a baby, it was just a clump of…
