Awesome Comment Award: Emily on pro-life narratives

In going through the anti-abortion arguments thread, I found this comment left by reader Emily and just had to share it here:

But that’s how pro-life (and many other) arguments and positions get constructed. They’re made of narratives which are heart wrenching, anecdotal, and passed verbally. So, it becomes to an individual, post-abortion trauma is real because the volunteer I know at the crisis pregnancy center hears these women’s stories and she told me. And I know that in godless places with socialized medicine abortion is a primary form of birth control because the missionary I heard give a presentation talked about the women he knew of in Russia having dozens of abortions. While anonymous, the stories of women who have had abortions and their partners, family, etc. are canonized and passed on. And since nobody gets up in a Women of Faith conference and confesses, “I had an abortion 9 years ago, nothing negative happened as a result, and I’m sure glad I made that decision,” it certainly appears as if the tearful stories of pain and loss are the only abortion stories. In fact, I think it’s important to consider this social construction of the pro-life position and stories of pain in the treatment of this issue.