Oprah Winfrey’s ‘O’ Promotes ‘Shout Your Abortion’ Movement

US chat show host Oprah Winfrey poses during the European premiere of A Wrinkle in Time in
ANTHONY HARVEY/AFP/Getty Images
Dr. Susan Berry

The July issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine featured a column by Amelia Bonow, the founder of the “Shout Your Abortion” movement, which encourages women to brag about having an abortion.

Bonow wrote she became “unraveled” in September 2015 when she heard the House of Representatives had voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

“Who’s standing up for the clinic workers? And for women who have abortions?” she recalled asking herself. “I opened Facebook and, without thinking, wrote, ‘Like a year ago, I had an abortion at Planned Parenthood…and I remember this experience with a nearly inexpressible level of gratitude.’ I hit Post 153 words later, and everything changed.”

Bonow’s movement insists, “Abortion is normal,” and is releasing a book titled Shout Your Abortion in November.

Recalling her own abortion, Bonow wrote, “On some level, I’d internalized the stigma – though I honestly wasn’t ashamed. Then why hide? It wasn’t out of character for me to disclose something so personal online. What was out of character was my silence.”

Soon after her Facebook post, the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion “had gone viral,” she touted.

Bonow blamed the pro-life movement for portraying abortion as shameful.

“The anti- choice movement wants it to be terrifying to speak the truth, because we can’t advocate for something we can’t say out loud,” she wrote. “But the more of us who speak out, the clearer it becomes that all sorts of people have abortions, including people you love.”

LifeNews observes, however, “[I]t really is her own movement, the pro-abortion movement, that silences women whose abortion stories do not fit their narrative.”

Additionally, the pro-life Silent No More Awareness campaign was on the scene long before Bonow’s pro-abortion movement and her campaign was given a platform by Oprah Winfrey.
“The Silent No More Awareness campaign is just one example of the many pro-life storytelling outreaches,” LifeNews explains. “It encourages people who experienced pain and regret after their abortions to share their stories publicly, and its website documents thousands of stories of mothers, fathers, grandparents and others who experienced deep pain and remorse because of unborn babies’ abortion deaths.”

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