I am glad you wrote this. It changed my thinking. I understand 1984 and doublespeak intimately, for I think purely in language; without the words I have great trouble concieving of things. You have given me the words.

For some time now I have secretly hated the whole abortion issue, felt it was an obstacle preventing anything else from being discussed. I thought no one would change their mind about abortion, so what was the point?

That ambivilance was brought into sharp relief recently when my wife had a miscarriage. I no longer felt competent to choose sides at all. Even seven weeks in, that life was important and real. And yet as I learned how common miscarriage is (our doctor told us 1 in 3 pregnancies end that way) I realized how fragile that life is. Especially early on, it represents only a potential.

I believe that my wife's body detected something wrong, that it aborted the process because that was the best thing to do. And when a woman's body does this a third of the time because something only it can detect is not right, the arguments of anti-abortion activists seem ludicrous. Yet in the end I was left unwilling to face the issue at all. It had become too big and too real.

I have doubted my feelings about abortion for a long time. I knew what I was against but, without being able to speak to what I was for, I could only be silent.  Thank you for writing today.  You have given me new words.