At the time of the thirtieth anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, it seemed that the “pro-lifers” (or, as we like to call them, anti-choicers) were gaining the upper hand when it comes to attention, and it continues to go that way. If you watched TV at all on January 22, 2003, all you seemed to see was some anti-choicer foaming at the mouth about all the “innocent babies that have been slaughtered.” When you did see someone expressing a pro-choice opinion, which wasn’t often, that person was often apologetic, implying that women who choose to undergo an abortion are guilt-ridden for the rest of their lives. If you surf the Internet, you’ll find literally dozens of sites filled with stories about bad abortion experiences. The stories all have a sameness-“oh, I didn’t want to kill my baby, my mean old boyfriend/husband/parents made me do it and the doctors and nurses at the clinic were rude and I bled for weeks and I feel so guilty and I’ll never be able to forgive myself.” Type in “pro-abortion stories” in your search engine and you’ll find … the same sites, because there are no such sites. Of course, there are a lot of women who do feel sadness and regret after an abortion, and those feelings do need to be respected.
However, there are women, perhaps just as many or more, who have much different feelings-feelings of relief, of conviction that they made the right decision, yes, maybe even of joy. They have no regrets or remorse. They don’t get bummed out on the anniversary of the procedure; they don’t look longingly at a kid playing and think that their fetus would be that old by now. They recovered from the procedure easily and got on with their lives. Those feelings need to be respected as well-but they’re not. If a woman dares to say in public that she felt anything other than horrible about getting an abortion, she is treated like someone who says that maybe Osama bin Laden isn’t such a bad guy after all or that Hitler had the right idea. Even many in the pro-choice movement subtly encourage the mindset that no decent woman really wants an abortion and that it’s done only when there’s no other alternative.
I’mNotSorry.net was created for the purpose of showing women that exercising their legal right to terminate their pregnancy is not the blood-spattered guilt trip so many make it out to be. It is not intended to make women’s decisions for them, but to provide information to make the choice that will be best for them. This site exists to tell women that it’s okay not to feel sad or ashamed after an abortion. You are not a baby killer. You are not irresponsible. You are not selfish. And, above all, you are not evil.
