This Book Starts with an Abortion

The news has officially hit the internet. The opening scene in The Lone Wolf Paradox is a safe, legal, abortion. Here’s the content warning I included in the book:

This book starts with an abortion. It is a non-graphic, non-traumatic moment that represents the truth; abortion has been critical healthcare for millennia, with practices passed down from generation to generation. This book is a cozy, small town paranormal romance, not despite an abortion but because of one. The main character is able to make the right choice for herself. This story would not exist without reproductive freedom. I know discussions of pregnancy loss can be triggering and I understand if you need to avoid this book. Please take care of yourself first.

When I set out to write this book, I knew early on it would start with an abortion as an act of radicle self-determination. I also wanted this book to reflect an oft forgotten reality; Abortion is THE pro-family policy. The anti-abortion platform often presents the voluntary termination of pregnancy as anti-family and anti-baby. The reality is further from the truth.

In the most extreme cases, abortion is an acute treatment for pressing and life-threatening pregnancy complications. The news stories coming from places like Texas and Georgia, where abortion is illegal or access is heavily restricted, are devastating. Birthing parents are dying or facing infertility because they are not allowed timely access to necessary medical interventions. It is hard to look at this sort of restriction on health care and see any sort of resemblance to a profamily policy. Children are losing parents, partners are losing spouses, and couples are losing the opportunity to continue their family the way they want.

I also know that these news stories that have dominated the airwaves and the internet don’t provide the full story around policy. The reality is, people who can get pregnant deserve to make the right choices for their bodies and themselves. In the Lone Wolf Paradox, Bea terminated her pregnancy because she did not have the support system nor the partner, she needed to successfully be a parent. She was growing her business and being pregnant was not something she could handle in her life at the start of the book. This is a reality that must be allowed and accounted for. While I don’t want to give too much away about this book, I do want to firmly state that throughout this book, my goal was to define a narrative. Abortion is pro-family.

Throughout this book, I could not help but think of reproductive justice on a broader scale. The conversation cannot stop at abortion access, as important as that is. We most also looking at pregnancy, the birthing process, and parenting as a whole and how the entire system in the US often feels anti-family.

Increasingly, the US has scaled back the social safety net. Things like SNAP benefits and free and reduced lunch are programs the current administration has targeted for reduction. In addition, the cost of daycare rivals college tuition and the US still lacks a paid parental leave policy. The unpaid family leave required by federal law is capped at about 3 months, but many parents cannot afford to take that much time off. All this means having children is harder.

When taking race into consideration, there is an even greater gap in profamily policy that leaves mothers and birthing parents at risk. Black mothers /birthing parents experience a much higher rate of maternal mortality than their white counter parts when adjusted for age and social economic status. The infant mortality rate also increases for Black babies compared to their white counter parts. A major part of reproductive justice is making sure safe access to prenatal care, and postpartum care is available to everyone that call this country home. Right now, the US is failing at this goal.

As I crafted the characters and specifically the mothers in this book (because there are multiple) these were all things I considered. The support needed to have children, the support that’s often not available. Abortion is just one part of reproductive justice. Safe healthcare, affordable throughout pregnancy and postpartum, paid time off, social safety nets, and other pro family policies are all part of a web of reproductive justice.

Lastly, I would be remiss to not discuss the overt political themes in this post and ultimately this book. The truth is, I don’t see abortion access as a political matter at all. Abortion has been part of healthcare for generations. We are fortunate that modern medicine has allowed for safer modalities, but herbs and plants have been able to terminate pregnancy for a very long time. Books are only inherently political because the ideas they contain are considered dangerous by the forces in power.

M.J. Etkind is the author of Dishwasher Safe, The Lone Wolf Paradox, and The Witch of Wall Street