My Rapist Apologized

“Without even realizing it, I had forgiven him. It’s difficult to imagine that I would feel the same if he had shown me no care or concern, or if I had been forced to endure a fresh wave of trauma in our court system, or if I had been forced to give birth to a child that I did not choose.”

This article, written by Michelle Alexander, captures a conversation Alexander had with her daughter in which she tells her that she was raped while attending law school at Stanford, that she became pregnant, and that because she had a choice, she decided to have an abortion. Alexander writes this article in response to her daughter inquiring about her opinion on abortion. Our group found this piece to be thought provoking and painfully honest. Alexander addresses the nuances of aborition in the context of 1) the alarmingly high statistical likelihood that a woman will be raped at some point in her lifetime (1 in 5 according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center at the time the article was written), 2) her apprehension to report what happened to her because she believed our court system would only retraumatize her 3) the intergenerational wealth gap between black and white families that plays a large role in why Black women have the highest rates of abortion, and 4) her belief that true gender and racial equality will only be achieved when all women have the right to make decisions about our own bodies.