Who are the "one in three?"

According to Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute, "One in three women will obtain an abortion before the age of 45."

This statistic is featured in a new pro-choice campaign, 1 in 3. The message is that abortion is so common, so widespread, that there should be no stigma attached to the procedure.  We should, they say, be working hard to ensure that the one in three women who get an abortion can do it easily, without fuss , and that they can talk about it openly, without shame.  The sheer numbers of women involved with abortion shows that abortion is here to stay -- and that it's no big deal.

One in three women in America will obtain an abortion.  And here are some other statistics about women in America:

One in four women in America have been victims of domestic violence.

One in five women in America say they have been sexually assaulted.

One in eight women in America will suffer invasive breast cancer. 

One in ten women in America suffer from eating disorders.

Look at all those numbers!  Why, one of the women who lives next door to you, or who bags your groceries, or who does your taxes is very likely going to go home and make herself vomit; and her next door neighbor has a lump the size of a golf ball in her breast, and it's metastasizing; and her next door neighbor will be beaten and raped before she makes it halfway home. 

Numbers don't lie -- these things are super common.  So why the stigma against normal old rape, common old cancer, everyday old anorexia, America?  Can't we just get over it?

But wait, maybe that's comparing apples and oranges.  Those other statistics have to do with things that are beyond a woman's control:  No one chooses to get cancer.  No one chooses to be abused or sexually assaulted.  But abortion is different, isn't it?  Women who have abortions choose to have them, right?  That's the whole point of the pro-choice movement.   The purpose of the "1 in 3" campaign is to introduce us to women just like you and me, women who chose to be there.  We have to protect abortion rights because you never know who will need to make that choice tomorrow.

All right.  So who are these one in three women?

Well, one of the women not featured in the "1 in 3" campaign is Steph from Virginia, a fifteen-year-old who endured a 48-hour siege inside her bedroom while her entire family raged at her until she gave in and got her abortion.  She is one of the one in three women in America who obtains an abortion.

Robyn Reed is one of the one in three.  When she tried to escape from the abortion clinic where her family had dragged her, the abortionist tore off her clothes, hit her, tied her to a bed, aborted her child, and drugged her so heavily that she was unconscious for twelve hours.  Reed was fifteen years old at the time.  She is one of the one in three women in America who obtains an abortion. 

This mother is one of the one in three.  When doctors told her she would die if she didn't abort, she refused and refused, but finally agreed to be induced early, on the condition that they would try to save her baby's life.  She delivered a son, and no one made any effort to help him.  He died in her arms.  Later, she discovered that he was healthy, and that she had never been at risk.  She is one of the three women in America who obtains an abortion. 

Here are notarized affidavits from women who were pressured into having abortions.  Each of these women is one of the one in three women in America who obtains an abortion.

Here are hundreds of pages of written testimony from women who were forced or coerced into abortions.  Each of these women is one of the one in three women in America who obtains an abortion.

Here and here and here are hundreds of accounts written by women who had an abortion and regret it.  Over and over again, they use the phrase, "I felt like I didn't have a choice."  Each one of these women is one of the one in three women in America who obtains an abortion.  They are part of the one in three. 

These are the women the Guttmacher Institute is counting when they used numbers to make the claim that women want and need abortion.

This is what the "1 in 3" Campaign seeks to normalize:  pain, regret, coercion, violence, despair.  It is a campaign to make women understand that abortion is normal, abortion is their fate -- that they have no choice.