Jun 09 2022 38 mins 1.5k
If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in the coming weeks, tens of millions of women will find themselves living in states where abortion is outlawed in almost all cases. And for some women, that will mean having children — without actually wanting them — because they are left with no choice.
That’s where Merritt Tierce, a writer, was 23 years ago. At 19, she was not planning to become a mother when she found herself pregnant. “I realized instantaneously when I saw the two pink lines appear telling me that I was pregnant, there was no way to go back to before that moment,” she said. “I was going to have to make a choice that was going to be impossible.” This is the story of the abortion Merritt Tierce didn’t have.
Mentions and further reading:
- Merritt wrote about her experience for The New York Times Magazine.
- The collection of poems she mentions in the episode is called “Cries of the Spirit.”
(A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)
