Hey everyone, welcome back to ordinary equality.

As we mentioned last week, we're bringing you a special episode today featuring real abortion stories, including from some listeners like you.

I think it's really important to tell just plain, true stories about abortion so that people can hear them and understand all

the different range of emotions that come along with this type of procedure and understand

that everything that they are feeling and going through is valid and really connecting

this amorphous abstract idea of abortion to actual people.

And the first abortion story that I heard from someone that I loved, you also heard in the

first episode of this season.

It was from my sister.

So it wasn't until I reconnected with my sister that I ever actually talked to someone who had had an abortion.

And I think it's really important for people to hear those stories.

I agree.

I feel like when we share stories, we build empathy and we humanize each other and ourselves.

And the stigma smashing comes from seeing that connection, that human spark that each of us have.

When we see other people exploring life and all of its complexity and all of its uniqueness, the triumphs and the challenges.

So I find storytelling unifying. And I think that that's why it's so powerful, the ability for

the heart and mind to shift because we see another human going through their experience and

connect with it through empathy, through

recognition, through acknowledgement that we're all on our paths. We're all souls on a path.

We talked to my friend Dr. Leah Torres, who's an OBGYN, about the different kinds of abortion,

medication and surgical, and how they really work.

Plus, she shared a story about one of her patients that shows how stigma can be really

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