A GUIDE TO ABORTION

Abortion. We need to talk about it , seriously, I know, is sometimes deathly, so perhaps I should say we need to talk about it differently. Not assomething we all agree is a bad thing about which we shake our heads sadly andthen debate its precise degree of badness, preening ourselves on ourjudiciousness and moral seriousness as we argue about this or that restriction onthis or that kind of woman. We need to talk about ending a pregnancy as acommon, even normal, event in the reproductive lives of women—and not justmodern African women either, but women throughout history and all over theworld, from ancient Egypt to medieval Catholic Europe, from today’s sprawlingcities to rural villages barely touched by modern ideas about women’s roles andrights. Abortion takes place in Canada and Greece and France, where it is legal,performed by medical professionals, and covered by national health insurance,and also in Kenya, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, where it is a crime and awoman who terminates a pregnancy takes her life in her hands. According toanthropologists, abortion is found in virtually every society, going back at least4,000 years. African and American women had great numbers of abortions throughout ourhistory, when it was legal and when it was not.