![[EXCERPT] The M Word: What Motherhood Taught Me About My](https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims3/GLOB/legacy_thumbnail/250x140/format/jpg/quality/85/http%3A%2F%2Fi.huffpost.com%2Fgen%2F1464944%2Fimages%2Fn-US_UK_CA-628x314.jpg)
[EXCERPT] The M Word: What Motherhood Taught Me About My Abortion
It is essential for my purposes that you be able to imagine the desperation of being pregnant when you don't want to be, of what it is to be staring into that gaping black hole with everything you've ever worked and longed for lost inside it. I am aware that some people will find themselves more inclined to empathize with the six-week-old fetus in this matter, he or she (still indeterminate) about the size of a lentil, and whether such an inclination represents a terrific failure of imagination or an incredible imaginative leap, I'm still not entirely sure.
But I'd like such a person to shake their convictions for just a moment or two.