The seed of an idea

In August of this year, Todd Akin, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, made public comments about “legitimate rape” and how a woman’s body “has ways of shutting down” to prevent pregnancy.

I found his remarks ignorant and deeply offensive, and called both my sisters that night to talk to them about it. One sister lives in the district Akin would represent if he’s elected.

I said, “We have to do something. I don’t know what, exactly, but we can’t stand by and do nothing.”

Afterwards, I realized that I could take action on my own. Out of my outrage grew an essay about my personal reproductive history including the story of having an abortion. It felt like a pretty risky thing to do, but thirty-some years later, the consequences of telling my secret are minimal.

Shame and judgement have dominated the conversation about abortion, but that is the result of a very specific value system that not all of us share.

I value life. I also believe that every woman should have the right and the freedom to make her own decision about whether or not to have a child, a decision that takes into account her personal desires, her economic situation, her relationships, her health and her own convictions about such things, without any pressure from the outside world.

Out of those beliefs came the idea for the Kevlar®* kimono.

In the days when abortion clinics were besieged and doctors were being threatened and killed by radical anti-abortion activists, I purchased two yards of Kevlar® fabric. I wanted to make a ceremonial garment, a kimono, that could be worn by a woman with a decision to make.

When I wrote the essay, I remembered that Kevlar®, and decided that it was time to get it made.

I am certainly not advocating abortion. But there are likely always going to be situations in which abortion is preferable to carrying a pregnancy to term. This is not a decision for the state, or for few those radicals among us who believe that abortion is murder.

*Kevlar® is a bulletproof fabric, used in protective body armor in combat and tactical police applications.