Abortion Addict, Irene Vilar Tells Her Story
Irene Vilar, author, Impossible Motherhood
In a shocking revelation, Puerto Rican author Irene Vilar, details her trials, tribulations and abortions. In the book, ‘Impossible Motherhood’, Irene details what drove her to have 15 abortions in 16 years. She explains the relationship with her 50 year old professor and the implications it had on her life.
Born in Puerto Rico, Irene is the granddaughter of a Puerto Rican nationalist (Lolita Lebron) and the orphan of a suicidal mother. The book recounts the history of U.S. government sterilization experiments conducted on Puerto Rican women. In 1974, 37% of Puerto Rican women of childbearing age were permanently sterilized.
Excerpt from ‘Impossible Motherhood’:
For years, it didn’t occur to me that there was anything to tell about abortion. Quite the opposite. There was much to forget. But I discovered that many other women were hungry to come to terms with a past scarred by cowardice and the need to cloak themselves in someone else’s power. Many had a history of repeat abortions. They, like me, were eager to find a language to articulate an experience they had seldom spoken about. My testimony is not unique. Beyond the antiseptic, practical language of Planned Parenthood and the legalistic or moralistic discourse of Roe v. Wade and its pro-choice and pro-life counterparts, there are few words to articulate individual, intimate accounts. About half of American women having abortions in 2004 (of 1.5 million reported) had had a prior abortion. Close to 20 percent had had at least two previous abortions and 10 percent three or more. A considerable number of these repeat abortions occur among populations with high levels of contraceptive use.
I had twelve abortions in eleven years and they were the happiest years of my life.” (Fifteen in fifteen years, when counting three others by another man.) I wrote those words years ago, before I came to understand the truth. I know I’m destined to be misunderstood, that many will see my nightmare as a story of abusing a right, of using abortion as a means of birth control. It isn’t that. My nightmare is part of the awful secret, and the real story is shrouded in shame, colonialism, self-mutilation, and a family history that features a heroic grandmother, a suicidal mother, and two heroin-addicted brothers.
