The internet has been blowing up with hashtags in response to a surge of abortion bills and laws being introduced in southern and midwest states. Twitter movements such as #ShoutYourAbortion and more recently #YouKnowMe, started by T.V personality Busy Philipps, as a response to Georgia and Alabama’s restrictive abortion bills being signed into law. The goal of these hashtags is said to destigmatize the procedure and encourage women to share their stories, stories like this one from Twitter user Brie.
In a thread, the young woman shared her own personal abortion story she had when she was 17-years-old and it shows another side of possible results of hardlines laws like the one Alabama just passed.
This young woman just shared the reason behind her abortion in response to the new abortion laws and it’s going viral
Image credits: meowmeowmeow07
Brie explained that she had become pregnant when she was 17-years-old as the result of her boyfriend at the time, poking a hole in his condom. This practice is called ‘reproductive coercion.’ This type of sexual abuse can take many forms such as: threatening to leave unless the woman becomes pregnant, threatening to have a baby with someone else if she doesn’t comply, physically abusing a woman because she does not agree to pregnancy – and in the case of Brie – tampering with birth control to deliberately cause pregnancy.
Image credits: meowmeowmeow07
When she told her boyfriend that she was pregnant he admitted to poking the condom in an effort to “lock her in.” Poking holes in commons or removing them completely (also called “stealthing”) is a growing problem that the legal system hasn’t caught up to in the United States. Lawyer Alexandra Brodsky wrote a legal paper on the topic to address what she calls, ‘nonconsensual condom removal: “Ultimately, a new tort for “stealthing” is necessary both to provide victims with a more viable cause of action and to reflect better the harms wrought by nonconsensual condom removal.” Currently, there is no legal path for victims of this practice in the U.S.
Image credits: meowmeowmeow07
The author of the post went to a ‘women’s clinic’ run by Christians and was not received supportively so she sought out another place.
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As a minor Brie explained that she had to have parental consent to get the procedure, but didn’t want to tell her parents, so she went to a judge. Each state has its own laws concerning parental consent for an abortion. Some states have no laws and others require permission from an older family member. The OP was able to receive a “judicial bypass” allowing her to get an abortion without parental consent. Alabama requires parental consent but allows judicial bypass and; Georgia requires that one parent be told of the decision 24 hours before the abortion and also allows judicial bypass.
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In the case of this young woman, she was able to have a non-surgical abortion, available within the first two to ten weeks of pregnancy. This process works by taking two separate pills, mifepristone, which blocks a hormone necessary for a pregnancy to grow, and misoprostol, which stimulates the uterus to cramp and bleed so that the pregnancy will leave your body (similar to a miscarriage).
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Following the abortion, she broke up with her boyfriend. In the tweets, she said she pulled a knife on her and cut himself. Several studies about the rates of reproductive coercion have been done, and one found that in the US, that among 71 women with a history of intimate partner violence, almost three quarters had experienced some form of reproductive control.
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Her parents found out about her abortion and were supportive in keeping her ex away from them.
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Eventually, he was arrested. A Global Turnaway Study shows that American women who seek and are denied an abortion are more likely to remain in violent relationships than women who are able to access a procedure.
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While ‘stealthing’ like in the U.S is not covered by the law in Canada, the country did successfully sentence a man on these grounds in 2014. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the sexual assault conviction of a man who poked holes in his partner’s condom without knowledge or consent. In the case R v. Hutchinson, the man was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Image credits: meowmeowmeow07
The most recent states to pass abortion bills are Alabama and Georgia. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the controversial abortion bill passed by The Alabama Senate passed the bill 25-6, that could punish doctors who perform abortions with a 99-year or lifetime prison sentence. The law does not allow exceptions for rape and incest. Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp signed a “heartbeat bill”, that bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which is possible as early as six weeks.
One woman shared her own similar experience
Image credits: MarissaAnnYO
Image credits: MarissaAnnYO
Image credits: MarissaAnnYO
Image credits: MarissaAnnYO
And the OP thanked her for opening up and sharing support
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Other commenters highlighted the importance of having a support system like her friend
Image credits: shavaughnelle
Image credits: nuutmix
While not everyone supported her position they supported access to reproductive education and birth control
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