Should there be abortions in romance novels?
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Disclaimer: I am not judging or arguing a woman’s right to choose, I’m simply expressing my thoughts on them in romance novels specifically. If you disagree, that’s okay, but let’s keep things friendly.
I read an article recently that really fired me up, an author declared that she believes we should have abortions in romance and women’s fiction. I, lover of surprise pregnancy romance, was shocked! How dare she say such a thing! GASP. GIVE ME ALL THE BABIES. Am I right?
That said I think she only has it half wrong. I think that abortions do have their place in fiction, but I firmly believe that place is not romance. You can put that in women’s fiction, because in women’s fiction you are not guaranteed a happy ending. In romance, I *expect* to have engagements, weddings and babies! Happily ever afters, happily for now…
When I found I was pregnant, I wasn’t in the best place in life and I knew I’d be raising him on my own but, I never considered abortion for my son, although I did consider adoption, even going as far as to put him in temporary custody for 24 hours before deciding that I couldn’t live without him and that I couldn’t survive with someone else raising my baby. So, obviously for me deciding how to handle a surprise pregnancy should be well thought out and considered prior to making big life altering decisions.
When I read a romance novel I want to escape into a world where everything is rainbows, sunshine and unicorns. In fact, I very rarely seek out a story that has angst in it. Yes, I will read a murder mystery and I have read angsty books, but I don’t think I could stomach a story where a woman is surprised to find out she is pregnant, only to turn around and abort the little life growing inside of her. I’m reading romance. Not a true life expose. I’m not seeking out a story that is true to life.
I want to say that I think I have read a book or two where the heroine had an abortion when she was younger, but it didn’t play a major role in my mind, at least not a big enough role that I can remember what story it was.
So although my gut reaction to abortion in a romance novel is to run away kicking and screaming, I know that executed properly with great writing and story building, I might be able enjoy that story. Now, if it’s simply I don’t ever want a baby, so I’m going to kill the one I’m carrying, even though I created this life with a man that I’m in love with, when there are other options, I don’t think I could get behind a story like that.
The article I read really got under my skin because it was written as if you only had two options, abortion or keep the baby. There is also adoption and I’m baffled as to why that wouldn’t have been brought up or thrown in as another option. I’m all for women having a choice of what to do with their own body, but to casually throw out that if, Christian and Anna didn’t want to have a baby they should obviously have an abortion, really just threw me off, because that’s never an obvious choice to me. It’s something to that needs to be thought out and discussed.
I wasn’t in the best place in life when I found I was pregnant with my son and I knew I’d be raising him on my own but, I never considered abortion for my son, although I did consider adoption, even going as far as to put him in temporary custody for 24 hours before deciding that I couldn’t live without him and that I couldn’t survive with someone else raising my baby. So, obviously for me deciding how to handle a surprise pregnancy should be well thought out and considered prior to making big life altering decisions.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. I used to think I couldn’t tolerate cheating or huge age gaps in romance either, but with skilled writing I can get over just about any ‘taboo’ topic or subject matter that makes me uncomfortable.
I personally would be wary of picking up a book with abortion. Not because I don’t think it is important or an interesting factor in a book but I also fear the way it could be addressed in a book. The only way I would pick up a book feature abortion would be if a person I trusted recommended it to me because of the good abortion rep. I’m sure there are people who could benefit from reading that plot in books though so I think it could be a good thing for them. There are just to many ways this could go wrong for me so I’m sure I would keep them an arm length away.