Gays Leave the Closet, Abortion Moves Back In

1 in 3 women has had one, but so privately even friends don't know

By Clay Dillow, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 17, 2008 3:26 PM CDT

(Newser) – With Connecticut last week becoming the third state to allow same-sex couples to marry, a group once very much stigmatized becomes more and more mainstream, writes Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe. But even as homosexuals step out of the closet, women who’ve had abortions are stepping in. While nearly everyone knows someone who is gay, we don’t always know that we know someone who’s had an abortion.

While acceptance of homosexuality has flourished, abortion has, if anything, become more stigmatized, leading women to be intensely private about the decision, though one in three women has an abortion by age 45. "The more private it is, the more we think it only happens to someone else, someone 'unlike us.' " Goodman writes. "The more unlike us she is, the less public support there is for the right."

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (2)]

Anti-abortion supporters show their support outside Pepsi Center where the Democratic National Convention will be held, Saturday, Aug. 23 2008, in Denver. (AP Photo/Bill Ross)

Anti-abortion protestors K.C. Williams, right, and daughter Emily Williams carry posters attacking Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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The narrative of same-sex marriage ends with the sound of a champagne bottle popping at a wedding. An abortion, on the other hand, may be followed by an assortment of emotions, but certainly not joy.
- Ellen Goodman

There are many sympathetic gay characters on TV and the movies, but almost no sympathetic characters who are getting abortions. - Yale historian George Chauncey

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Gays Leave the Closet, Abortion Moves Back In