Six Degrees of Kevin-abortion-bacon

You know that game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Well I think that can also apply to abortion, although I would say it is probably more like one or two degrees. Everything I do in my day-to-day life and every interaction I have can somehow be related back to abortion. I see abortion everywhere and I can find a way to bring it into every conversation (either for humor or seriousness or somewhere in between). Friends of mine joke about how much I talk about abortion. A classmate and I had a running joke about bringing abortion into every classroom discussion and we would beam with pride when professors dared to include it. Just as my women’s studies classes in undergrad made me see the world through a feminist lens, my time working at an abortion clinic got me seeing the world through an abortion lens.

I see a pregnant person and I wonder if she tried to get or wanted to get an abortion.

I bought a car years ago and before I decided on a Mazda I Googled “abortion and Mazda”. I was overjoyed to find anti-abortion sites complaining about how Mazda had a hospital located at their factory and abortions were performed there. That sealed the deal!

I ride the subway with crisis pregnancy ads plastered along the inside of the cars. The pictures are always of very sad looking women (I like to think they are sad b/c they ended up at the crisis pregnancy center).

I asked the HR person at my new job what the insurance coverage was for abortion services (yup, first time meeting him, pretty sure I’ll be one to remember!).

I see a clothes hanger and think of abortion.

When I hear about friends/family using In Vitro Fertilization my first question is “Will you use selective termination if you end up with multiple embryos implanted?”

I remember legs of road trips not by the fast food joints and highway rest stops, but by the anti-abortion billboards peppering our country’s landscape.

Any time I see a health center that advertises “women’s services” or “gyn care” I get nervous that it is a crisis pregnancy center.

I get daily emails in my inbox and facebook posts with subjects like “this is about abortion and I know you will love it.”

I dream of one day organizing a marathon that gives 100% of the profits to abortion funding.

I relate costs of high-end items to abortion. Example: “Wow you spent $375 on 3 new pairs of shoes? That could have paid for an abortion.”

…Or even low-end items. Example: “You spent $40 on shoes? That is like 1/7 the cost of an abortion.”

I think about domesticated dogs getting abortions, I dream about abortions in my sleep, I wish there was an iphone app to tell me the location of the closest abortion clinic, and I am so comfortable with all of this.

And apparently Rick Santorum and I have this (and only this) in common


p.s. Of course I chose the Kevin Bacon Footloose photo…he was all about sex-positivity!

What do you connect to abortion? What are the random things that make you think of abortion? I know I'm not the only one here...