Debbie Millman: "The sexual abuse I suffered as a child made access to abortion a necessity"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/roe-abortion-rights-consequences-1973-20220628.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/4Srgi

Trigger Warning


I thought I was the only girl in the world it was happening to. He told me if I told, no one would believe me. He told me if I told, he would kill my little brother and my mother. He had a menacing collection of sharp knives and I believed him. I always believed him. I was 11. Still in elementary school.

It began in the bathroom. First, there were showers. Then, one evening when my mother went out, he laid me flat on the bed and got on top of me. It was the heaviest weight I had ever felt. I laid there still, staring at the red and white box of Marlboro’s peeking out of some sweaters stuffed on a shelf in my mother’s open bureau. She had tried to quit; I suddenly realized she had failed, and this scared me.

That first year I did everything I could to avoid being alone with him. I stayed late at school. I buried myself in Seventeen magazine and Nancy Drew books at the library. I distracted myself with the local newspaper, attempted challenging word puzzles, used the Billboard Top 20 column every Sunday as the following week’s listening checklist on my transistor radio. I read about Watergate and Elvis Presley and the release of POWs. I wore several pairs of pajamas to bed — one layered over another — so it might take longer for him to get to me.

But nothing stopped him. The second year, I discovered a letter to Ann Landers in the advice column of the newspaper from another girl who was experiencing a lot of what I was and realized it wasn’t just me. Ann urged the writer to tell someone, anyone. But I knew I couldn’t. I cut the column out and hid it under my mattress. Knowing it was there gave me comfort.

*snip*

[MLAA]

1. Heartbreaking. Thank you for posting.