Marie

As an adoptee how do you feel about the issue of abortion? 

As an adoptee and more importantly as a woman I feel that pregnancy is a woman's personal choice. Pregnancy should not be forced upon any woman. The state should not force women to give birth against their will. If men could get pregnant there would be abortion on demand.

How do you feel being adopted has affected your opinion on abortion?

If anything it's made me more pro-choice, not less. I wouldn't wish adoption on anyone and I had a 'good' adoption - I was loved and cared for. I loved my adoptive parents. But I hate that my identity and history had to be erased.  Adoption's historically been about providing the wealthy infertiles with the children of the poor. I certainly wouldn't wish it on any woman having a crisis pregnancy. I know my own mother suffered terribly with my loss, not knowing what had become of me. She carried that guilt to her grave. I never got to see her after I was taken from her. No woman should endure that lifelong torture. No child should endure having their family, history and identity erased.

Many adoptees have been asked "Aren't you glad you weren't aborted?", what is your response to that? 

My response is that I hope my mother had a choice and wasn't forced into pregnancy and childbirth at the age of 15. If she didn't want a pregnancy, I would have prefered that she chose a termination. If I had been aborted I wouldn't exist so I'd have no opinions about my lack of existence. Do these people ask everyone if they're glad they exist? It's like asking 'are you glad the sky is blue?' Utterly ridiculous.

Have you ever felt like your experience of being an adoptee has been misrepresented or used to advance a certain rhetoric? How does this make you feel?

Oh god yes. I live in Ireland - abortion has only been legal for a few years here. Pro-lifers often try to speak for adoptees without consulting them. It happened during the abortion referendum. It makes me feel insanely angry. Adoption should not be an alternative to abortion.

Can you talk about a time when you felt pressured to have an opinion on abortion?

During the abortion referendum here in Ireland. I have a friend who's ultra-Catholic and was quite vocal on Facebook about it. We kind of fell out over it.