When I think about abortion I think about the people I know who have had missing family members because someone chose to abort a child.

Hard obsidian stories with no happy conclusions. Just a space where a child should have been.

The etymology and meaning of abortion is worth examining, not just for it’s history or boundaries but the duality of it’s meaning.

In medical terms a miscarriage is referred to as a “missed a-b” or an “a-b” that necessitates surgical extraction.

I have had one of each.

The first was a molar pregnancy.

I went to my first ultrasound expecting see filigree images of a little person. There were none. There were only signs of a child who had been there (however briefly), and the molar tissue left behind.

I knew something was wrong but no one–neither doctors nor techs, told me anything. I left the hospital dazed and…