Member-only story
WOMEN
I Helped a Single Woman Undergo an Abortion in India
The social stigma around unplanned pregnancies puts unmarried Indian women in harm’s way
Last month, while I was sipping on Long Island Iced Tea with my partner — holidaying in the picturesque town of Manali, in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh — my male friend from Delhi started bombarding me with calls.
I did not answer it the first two or three times because I was in my personal space, and that whole week was mentally draining. I just wanted to be left alone.
But when he called me for the 5th time, I knew I could no longer ignore his call.
“Pal, are you alone?” he asked in a hushed voice, and his signature gleeful greeting — ‘Heyyyyy…’ — was missing.
“No, but we can talk,” I assured him.
“Pal, can you please call me back when you are alone? Make it quick. Pal, I’m…”
This friend and I met in Delhi during a field assignment. He is a few years younger than I, but we hit it off instantly over our shared passion for human rights and geopolitics.
‘A free world for our children, Pal. We must work hard now so that they can have the freedom we couldn’t,’ he would often say.
