Women Tweet #ihadanabortion After Anti-Choice Midterm Election Wins

Silence works to the advantage of opponent of women's rights. In the struggle to protect a woman's right to control her own body, the opposing side regularly resorts to shaming tactics to keep the one-third of American women who have abortions from publicly supporting their choice. It's an effective strategy: keep abortion in the shadows, a secret, taboo, and it makes it harder for women to defend their reproductive rights. But in response to the election of a swarm of anti-choicers this Tuesday, women took to Twitter to spread their message far and wide: I had an abortion. And it was the best thing for me. #ihadanabortion quickly grew in volume to a front-page trending topic.

As Sarah Seltzer writes at Alternet, this isn't the first time women have spoken out about their own abortions in defense of reproductive rights. The first-ever issue of Ms. magazine made its mark in 1972 with a petition signed by 53 prominent women saying: I had an abortion. There's also been a movie of that name.

Today, the power of social media opens up a unique new way for women nationwide to get their message out there quickly, publicly, and powerfully. In 140 words or less, women expressed their support for the right to make choices about their own body, such as "Almost half my life ago, #ihadanabortion. I'm not sorry. I've never been sorry. I will never be sorry. Just very, very grateful." Many mothers tweeted about how having an abortion allowed them to have great kids when it was the right time: "Those who are ANTI-choice shd B glad #ihadanabortion. I went on to finish college, support myself, marry ... have 2 honor students. Nice, huh?" One women tweeted about her mother and grandmother talking about their own abortions.

And while Twitter doesn't usually provide a lot of room for nuance, one tweeter made good use of the medium with her message about women "regretting" their abortions: "#ihadanabortion ≠"silencing" those w/regrets. i had regrets but it WAS the right decision. not mutually exclusive."

The use of the hashtag snowballed after an initial tweet by Steph Herold, or @IAmDrTiller, who memorializes the murdered late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in her Twitter handle. The tweet that sparked it all: "Time for us to come out. Who's had an abortion? Show antis we're not intimidated by scare tactics. Use: #ihadanabortion." Her goal, Seltzer reports, was to end the "stigma"surrounding abortion.

Anti-choicers in Congress have already undermined women's ability to make decisions about their own bodies through actions such as the Hyde Amendment and opposing abortion coverage in health care reform, while the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act is a current hovering menace to reproductive rights. In an age in which social media can have significant power to reach vast audiences, coming out as someone who has had an abortion via Twitter is an excellent example of taking historical feminist techniques and tweaking them for effective modern-day action.

Photo credit: JoshSemans