Grief after Miscarriage and Abortion: A Pro-Choice Response

Abstract

After experiencing my own miscarriage, I was told by a pro-life advocate that the miscarriage should be easy for me to “get over” because, as a pro-choice advocate, I didn’t regard embryos or fetuses as persons. While such a comment can be attributed to ignorance, it is true that the pro-choice community in general has been reluctant to acknowledge grief after pregnancy loss, whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. In this paper, I argue that it is imperative that abortion rights advocates acknowledge the ambivalence and grief that can follow abortions and that they help create feminist, women-centered ways of addressing and alleviating any negative post-abortion feelings.