TeresaCentric

Earlier today, I agreed with Feministing's Jessica Valenti in calling Kourtney Kardashian's remarks surrounding her decision to carry her unplanned pregnancy to term, "cringe worthy." A lot of people, both on Facebook and on Twitter have disagreed with me, and it's hard to explain myself in short form - so I'm unpacking my reaction a bit more here. In her interview with People, Kardashian makes four statements that really, really bothered me. Number one:

I looked online, and I was sitting on bed hysterically crying, reading these stories of people who felt so guilty from having an abortion," she recalls. "I was reading these things of how many people are traumatized by it afterwards.

The information she found is most likely propaganda from the anti-choice right describing a fictitious mental illness they call "post abortion syndrome." Scientific research has demonstrated that post abortion syndrome isn't real. If this was the reason why Kardashian decided not to have an abortion, then she made her decision based on false information. Number two:

For me, all the reasons why I wouldn't keep the baby were so selfish: It wasn't like I was raped, it's not like I'm 16. I'm 30 years old, I make my own money, I support myself, I can afford to have a baby. And I am with someone who I love, and have been with for a long time.

There is a lot of propaganda out there about women choosing abortion for "selfish" reasons. If a woman doesn't want to be a mother, or she isn't ready, she's being selfish. Double selfish if she has the means to care for a child, if she got pregnant because she was having sex for pleasure rather than being forced, etc. This idea is part of a larger agenda that is supposed to keep women "in our place." It's fine to choose to keep your pregnancy, but if you're doing it because you think it's selfish not to - even if you're legitimately not ready to be a parent - then you're doing it for the wrong reasons. Number three:

My doctor told me there is nothing you will ever regret about having the baby, but he was like, 'You may regret not having the baby.

What kind of doctor was this? It sounds like the kind of thing women are told at anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers that try to persuade women into keeping their pregnancies through any means necessary. And finally:

Scott he was so excited. But I think if I had said I'm not going to keep it, I really think he would have pushed me into keeping it.

This last statement says so much. Her boyfriend wants her to keep the pregnancy, and even if she didn't he would have pushed her into having the baby. Doesn't sound like much of a choice if you ask me.