Stop ignoring the danger and heartbreak of birth mothers and all bodies who give birth

Journalists Irin Carmon and Tatum Hunter discuss the social stigmas and challenges faced by birth mothers, and how that contributes to sidelining their voices in the abortion debate. “Adoption doesn't solve the problem that leads people to seek abortion,” Carmon, senior correspondent at New York magazine, tells Ali Velshi. “Whether or not they choose to parent, they will experience the profound loss of autonomy and dignity that coerced pregnancy and birth always impose.” Hunter, personal technology writer at the Washington Post, shares firsthand what it’s like to undergo a coerced pregnancy after unsuccessfully seeking an abortion as a teenager. ”The way that we treat people experiencing crisis pregnancies is a little bit like a circus,” she tells Velshi. Crisis pregnancies, she argues, could be addressed with better education and access to birth control. Carmon adds that “even the most privileged and the most chosen pregnancy involves a huge amount of risk.” They argue that birth mothers end up suffering in silence due to social taboos associated with unwanted pregnancies. In contrast, our culture celebrates and makes room for adoptees and adoptive parents. “The experience of birth mothers, not the same– and it speaks volumes about where our empathy starts and ends,” Hunter tells Velshi. “We’re not kind to birth mothers.”