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Back The Woman in the Photograph Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for the previous work of
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. 24 April 2018
  6. Part 1: Subject
  7. 15 June 1968
  8. 20 June 1968
  9. July 1968
  10. 2 February 2018
  11. Part 2: Light
  12. 20 November 1970
  13. 20 November 1970
  14. 21 November 1970
  15. November 1970
  16. 19 February 2018
  17. Part 3: Focus
  18. 15 April 1977
  19. 18 April 1977
  20. 15 May 1977
  21. July 1977
  22. 26 February 2018
  23. 8 March 2018
  24. 8 March 2018
  25. Part 4: Distance
  26. 15 May 1979
  27. 15 May 1979
  28. 16 May 1979
  29. June 1979
  30. 29 March 2018
  31. 29 March 2018
  32. 27 March 2018
  33. Part 5: Movement
  34. 18 October 1981
  35. 10 April 2018
  36. 18 October 1981
  37. 10 April 2018
  38. 18 October 1981
  39. 10 April 2018
  40. 18 October 1981
  41. 10 April 2018
  42. 10 April 2018
  43. 18 October 1981
  44. 10 April 2018
  45. October 1981
  46. Part 6: Exposure
  47. July 1984
  48. 5 September 1984
  49. 24 April 2018
  50. 25 April 2018
  51. Part 7: Developing
  52. 26 April 2018
  53. Vee, in the lost place, 1984
  54. 26 April 2018
  55. Epilogue
  56. 5 February 2019
  57. Author’s Note
  58. Acknowledgements
  59. Letter from Author
  60. Stephanie Butland’s Readers’ Club
  61. For your Reading Group
  62. For discussion
  63. Select bibliography
  64. About the author
  65. Also by Stephanie Butland

I’m writing this letter because I want you to know that I’m fine. I didn’t want to have a baby and now I’m not having one. I got rid of it in a clean, legal way and I feel no shame. No regret. No anything, except relief. And a bit of sadness for the sisters who just ten years ago couldn’t abort safely, and risked their lives to get out of an unwanted pregnancy, or the unwanted marriage that was likely if they didn’t have the money or the contacts to help them to get rid of what they didn’t want. I’m glad we’ve changed this. And yes, I know you’ll point out that it took more than the women to do this, so credit to David Steel for getting the act through Parliament in the first place. I’ve never said all men are bastards, have I? If you were, I wouldn’t be bothering to write you these letters, month in, month out. But it only had to be a man because we don’t have enough female MPs. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Don’t think the sisterhood isn’t on it. But that’s a big conversation. We are going to have to save that whole topic for another letter.

We are getting some sort of equality for women, with safe abortions on the NHS, even if we do have to jump through a couple of hoops to get there. (The sisters are working on getting rid of the hoops. We are not satisfied with things as they are. Not yet. Imagine if you could only have a vasectomy if two doctors said that your mental health wasn’t strong enough to handle fathering a child.) What we need now is for everyone to stop being so sentimental about it all.

I had an abortion, John. I’m glad. If you have some feelings to feel, then don’t let me stop you. I’m all for men having feelings, admitting them and expressing them and not being ashamed of them. But if you have feelings about the abortion that I chose to have, I’d like you to go and have them a long way away from me. I’ve got better things to do than dry your tears, and I have none for you to dry. I can’t be distraught in the way you want me to be. I’m relieved. That’s all.

Until next time,

Leonie

26 February 2018

26 February 2018

‘IT’S NOT GOOD NEWS, MS MOON.’

‘Of course it isn’t,’ Veronica says.