In a new interview with GQ magazine, Jason Isbell talked candidly about the concept of abortion and, in very real-life terms, the experience he and his wife, acclaimed artist Amanda Shires, had with a recent health scare.
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“My wife, Amanda, had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured while we were playing a show in Texas a year ago. At that point in time, she was still able to go to the ER and have the procedure done without having to wait for the doctors to contact a lawyer and make sure they could legally take this thing out of her body that was very clearly not a viable pregnancy by any means. She could have very easily died. She was very close to death because it ruptured and she had a lot of internal bleeding and she was in a whole lot of pain. It was a very, very frightening situation,” Isbell told the outlet.
The singer added, “I think if people would just tell the truth, that would help a whole lot. Because a whole lot of us men have benefited from women having the right to choose. And if you don’t know that you’ve benefited from that, the reasons could either be that a woman was too kind to tell you or that she was afraid to tell you. This is the privilege of ignorance. If by some chance we could reveal all the men who have benefited from abortion, it would become very clear and obvious just what a woman’s right to choose does for society in general.”
These quotes come from a sweeping article in the magazine, which surveyed a number of big names, including actor Michael Imperioli, writer Saeed Jones, journalist Alexander Chee, designer Tremaine Emory and several more.
Continued Isbell, “I grew up in a very religious place around very religious people who were very much against abortion in all forms. And over time I came to my own conclusion that I think a woman should be able to make those decisions for herself.
“The root of the issue is: Do you believe that a fertilized egg is a human? I don’t believe that. I think that it’s part of a woman’s body. And so I think that a woman should be allowed to make decisions based on that information.”
Read the full article HERE.
