CHOICE/LESS, Episode 7 – Jessica Valenti: How have I changed?

“The feminist who gets one abortion is understandable, expected even. The woman—the mother—who gets two, though, must be doing something wrong with her life,” Jessica Valenti, Sex Object. 

Jessica Valenti is a feminist author, co-founder of Feministing.com, and columnist at The Guardian US. Her new book, Sex Object, explores what it’s like to come of age as a female in a misogynist, patriarchal society.

Her experiences with abortion and motherhood have reinforced her feminist, pro-choice beliefs. Valenti has had two abortions. The first was the result of an unwanted pregnancy, and the second ended a very wanted pregnancy that could have been fatal. The first wasn’t a difficult decision at all: she just didn’t want to be pregnant. The second was profoundly painful. Still, she says, one experience was not more valid than the other.

Listen to her full story here.

Transcript (pdf)