The Barrel of a Pen

"The Barrel of a Pen", was the most disturbing story I have read so far this semester. Abortion is never a fun topic anyway but the light-heartedness that these young women approached this topic with was unsettling. Particularly when the pregnant woman states that the baby these three girls are aborting has "a hard head like her mother". I literally wanted to be sick when I read that. Here this woman is paying another woman to stab her baby with a pen barrel and she is cracking jokes. Furthermore, the baby is old enough not only to be identified as a girl, but old enough to kick. I also felt this story was a perfect example of what happens when abortions are considered illegal and women are forced to perform them "in back street alleys" as they say. The danger that a woman may face when attempting to abort a fetus in this way is unbelievable.