September 1, 2021 • 7 mins
From November 2018, Lindy West discusses "Shout Your Abortion," a book based on the 2015 movement of people sharing their abortion experiences and using truth to fight anti-choice rhetoric.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome to the show. Thank
you for having me. This is a book that was
based around a movement. I remember this trending online. I
remember the debate that this started, Shout your Abortion. It
immediately jaws a lot of people. But what is this
movement to all about? So it started in two thousand
(00:22):
and fifteen, UM, when I don't know if you remember,
but um, the Planned Parenthood sells baby parts videos. We're
going around big hit um, and my friends and I
were perturbed and um trying to figure out is there
something that we can do? Is there some way that
we can um counteract this like crazy nonsense? And my
(00:43):
friend Amelia went on Facebook kind of spontaneously and wrote
a beautiful post that said I had an abortion, a
planned parenthood and it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I
felt nothing but relief. UM, and I'm a good person
and my abortion made me happy. And so I took that.
I screen grabbed it and I threw it on Twitter
and I added shout your abortion. And then the internet
(01:05):
exploded and some people said they were going to kill us,
but a lot of people um uh joined and told
started telling their stories with the hashtag, and it was
really kind of gorgeous. It was like this huge outpouring
of um just just truth, just you know, some people
(01:25):
had experiences that were traumatic, and some people had experiences
like Amelia's that were um that were they just felt gratitude.
And a lot of people people told us stories about
having abortions before Roe v. Wade, and it was you know,
we got letters from religious people and conservative people because
the reality is that people are having abortions trevor um
(01:47):
whether you know, really across party lines, across religious lines,
across geographic lines. It's the reality. And UM, the conversation
has really been dominated by what's essentially a fringe opinion.
You know, UM anti choice rhetoric is not actually the norm.
(02:08):
So you know, s of Americans support Roe v. Wade
and that's not a controversial thing, and yet we're all
sort of backed into this corner to talk about abortion
as like, well, yeah, I mean, I guess it is
kind of murder Like even people who are who are
pro choice, UM get sort of trapped in that paradigm,
which is um propaganda. But how do you how do
(02:28):
you move people away from the negative ideas surrounding abortion?
Because the paradox of abortion is that it isn't something
that is taken lightly. It's not something that is benign
or flimsy. But at the same time, it is not
what many anti abortion activists have have started to speak
about it as you you you speak about the fact
(02:48):
that it is not a partisan issue and shouldn't be one,
but it has become one over time, and we know that,
you know, the church, like the Catholic Church for instance America,
did a really good job of reshaping that idea in
the minds of politicians. So how to shout your abortion
try to take us in a different direction. It's just
people telling the truth about their experiences and experiences that
(03:10):
we've been taught to feel shame about and to apologize for, um,
which is really engineered by the evangelical right deliberately, you know, UM,
And so all this is, it doesn't it's it's morally neutral,
you know. It's just people telling the truth. Here's what
happened to me, Here's why I made this choice, Here's
why I had to terminate this desperately wanted pregnancy. Or
(03:33):
it's people talking about having had multiple abortions for every
different kind of reason. Um, and so I think you know,
when you let uh such a common experience, one in
four people who can get pregnant will have an abortion.
That's huge. That means that everyone knows and loves someone
who has had an abortion. That's just reality. It's interesting
(03:54):
because I noticed in your speech and also in the book,
you stray away from using the term women or women's issue.
Is that is that something intentional? Yeah? I mean, I
think it's just more important, um now than ever when uh,
you know this administration is openly hostile to trans people.
I mean, I think those of us who are trying
to be on the right side of history and who
(04:15):
genuinely care about other human beings try to be inclusive
in our language. And the fact is that it's not
only women who can become pregnant. Transpant and non binary
people can be pregnant. And that's just reality. So um,
why would we you know, why would I be deliberately
inaccurate in the way that I speak when you when
you look through this book, what I what I really
(04:36):
found interesting and beautiful about it is that it is
stories from individuals who are telling you their individual experience
about how and why they had an abortion. Um, some
are painful, you know, some some of stories where the
person didn't want to have an abortion but had to,
you know, because of circumstances. You have all of the
images in the book. That's a that's a very deliberate
(04:58):
thing to do. Do you think that that that adds
to the stories putting a putting a face behind it? Yeah? Absolutely,
I mean I think it's really easy. Again, when you
have this tiny fringe group controlling the narrative. They're the
only one saying abortion out loud, and if we're never
saying abortion out loud, and we're never telling our stories
because we're shamed into silence. And when we talk about abortion,
(05:18):
we say we're so sorry, we're so sorry about this
constitutional right that we have and we know it's wrong
and bad, but can we please keep having it? Maybe,
like how is that a compelling political argument? But when
you tell the truth and you say I'm a human being,
you know me and you love me, and I've had
an abortion and it's normal and it's happening all the time,
I mean, that's just so it's so powerful and it
(05:39):
it really breaks down that argument, and it really shows
you that anti choice people are not trying to stop abortion.
They're trying to legislate who can and cannot have abortions
because conservative politicians, their wives and mistresses and daughters are
always going to be able to go get an abortion somewhere.
And really, all anti choice rhetoric does, and um, you know,
(06:04):
attempts to criminalize abortion um or to overturn row, all
that's gonna do is keep people trapped in poverty and
drowning in poverty for generations. That's the goal. And if
it wasn't the goal, they would spend their time and
money on comprehensive sex education, free birth control, free contraception, um.
All the things that actually pro choice people spend their
(06:25):
time on that actually do affect their abortion rate. So
you know. So it's a beautiful book with an amazing
movement behind it. Thank you so much for being on
the show. The book Shout Your Abortion is available now.
Lindy West. Everyone. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ears editions.
Subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content
(06:49):
and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has
been a Comedy Central podcast
You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome to the show. Thank
you for having me. This is a book that was
based around a movement. I remember this trending online. I
remember the debate that this started, Shout your Abortion. It
immediately jaws a lot of people. But what is this
movement to all about? So it started in two thousand
(00:22):
and fifteen, UM, when I don't know if you remember,
but um, the Planned Parenthood sells baby parts videos. We're
going around big hit um, and my friends and I
were perturbed and um trying to figure out is there
something that we can do? Is there some way that
we can um counteract this like crazy nonsense? And my
(00:43):
friend Amelia went on Facebook kind of spontaneously and wrote
a beautiful post that said I had an abortion, a
planned parenthood and it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I
felt nothing but relief. UM, and I'm a good person
and my abortion made me happy. And so I took that.
I screen grabbed it and I threw it on Twitter
and I added shout your abortion. And then the internet
(01:05):
exploded and some people said they were going to kill us,
but a lot of people um uh joined and told
started telling their stories with the hashtag, and it was
really kind of gorgeous. It was like this huge outpouring
of um just just truth, just you know, some people
(01:25):
had experiences that were traumatic, and some people had experiences
like Amelia's that were um that were they just felt gratitude.
And a lot of people people told us stories about
having abortions before Roe v. Wade, and it was you know,
we got letters from religious people and conservative people because
the reality is that people are having abortions trevor um
(01:47):
whether you know, really across party lines, across religious lines,
across geographic lines. It's the reality. And UM, the conversation
has really been dominated by what's essentially a fringe opinion.
You know, UM anti choice rhetoric is not actually the norm.
(02:08):
So you know, s of Americans support Roe v. Wade
and that's not a controversial thing, and yet we're all
sort of backed into this corner to talk about abortion
as like, well, yeah, I mean, I guess it is
kind of murder Like even people who are who are
pro choice, UM get sort of trapped in that paradigm,
which is um propaganda. But how do you how do
(02:28):
you move people away from the negative ideas surrounding abortion?
Because the paradox of abortion is that it isn't something
that is taken lightly. It's not something that is benign
or flimsy. But at the same time, it is not
what many anti abortion activists have have started to speak
about it as you you you speak about the fact
(02:48):
that it is not a partisan issue and shouldn't be one,
but it has become one over time, and we know that,
you know, the church, like the Catholic Church for instance America,
did a really good job of reshaping that idea in
the minds of politicians. So how to shout your abortion
try to take us in a different direction. It's just
people telling the truth about their experiences and experiences that
(03:10):
we've been taught to feel shame about and to apologize for, um,
which is really engineered by the evangelical right deliberately, you know, UM,
And so all this is, it doesn't it's it's morally neutral,
you know. It's just people telling the truth. Here's what
happened to me, Here's why I made this choice, Here's
why I had to terminate this desperately wanted pregnancy. Or
(03:33):
it's people talking about having had multiple abortions for every
different kind of reason. Um, and so I think you know,
when you let uh such a common experience, one in
four people who can get pregnant will have an abortion.
That's huge. That means that everyone knows and loves someone
who has had an abortion. That's just reality. It's interesting
(03:54):
because I noticed in your speech and also in the book,
you stray away from using the term women or women's issue.
Is that is that something intentional? Yeah? I mean, I
think it's just more important, um now than ever when uh,
you know this administration is openly hostile to trans people.
I mean, I think those of us who are trying
to be on the right side of history and who
(04:15):
genuinely care about other human beings try to be inclusive
in our language. And the fact is that it's not
only women who can become pregnant. Transpant and non binary
people can be pregnant. And that's just reality. So um,
why would we you know, why would I be deliberately
inaccurate in the way that I speak when you when
you look through this book, what I what I really
(04:36):
found interesting and beautiful about it is that it is
stories from individuals who are telling you their individual experience
about how and why they had an abortion. Um, some
are painful, you know, some some of stories where the
person didn't want to have an abortion but had to,
you know, because of circumstances. You have all of the
images in the book. That's a that's a very deliberate
(04:58):
thing to do. Do you think that that that adds
to the stories putting a putting a face behind it? Yeah? Absolutely,
I mean I think it's really easy. Again, when you
have this tiny fringe group controlling the narrative. They're the
only one saying abortion out loud, and if we're never
saying abortion out loud, and we're never telling our stories
because we're shamed into silence. And when we talk about abortion,
(05:18):
we say we're so sorry, we're so sorry about this
constitutional right that we have and we know it's wrong
and bad, but can we please keep having it? Maybe,
like how is that a compelling political argument? But when
you tell the truth and you say I'm a human being,
you know me and you love me, and I've had
an abortion and it's normal and it's happening all the time,
I mean, that's just so it's so powerful and it
(05:39):
it really breaks down that argument, and it really shows
you that anti choice people are not trying to stop abortion.
They're trying to legislate who can and cannot have abortions
because conservative politicians, their wives and mistresses and daughters are
always going to be able to go get an abortion somewhere.
And really, all anti choice rhetoric does, and um, you know,
(06:04):
attempts to criminalize abortion um or to overturn row, all
that's gonna do is keep people trapped in poverty and
drowning in poverty for generations. That's the goal. And if
it wasn't the goal, they would spend their time and
money on comprehensive sex education, free birth control, free contraception, um.
All the things that actually pro choice people spend their
(06:25):
time on that actually do affect their abortion rate. So
you know. So it's a beautiful book with an amazing
movement behind it. Thank you so much for being on
the show. The book Shout Your Abortion is available now.
Lindy West. Everyone. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ears editions.
Subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content
(06:49):
and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has
been a Comedy Central podcast
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com