Over 70 percent of Indian Americans support abortion access and reproductive rights. But you wouldn't know it from the public conversation. We're not testifying at hearings, writing op-eds or speaking openly about the messy, painful realities of our own reproductive lives. In a community that prizes privacy and propriety, the body remains one of the last taboo subjects—especially when it doesn't cooperate.
Maya Shankar didn't plan to break that silence. But then again, Shankar—a cognitive scientist, best-selling author and host of the award-winning podcast A Slight Change of Plans—has built her entire body of work around what happens when life refuses to follow the plan.
"There's a special stigma reserved for childfree women," she says. "And certainly that stigma holds in the South Asian community."
"Society often says, 'Always chase your dreams, never accept failure, keep going,'" she adds. "And there are limits on that."
"It's just an ongoing conversation," she says. And then, without prompting: "I'm childfree today. And I feel more joyful and happy and peaceful than I ever have."
The post What Happens When the Life You Always Dreamed of Isn’t Meant for You? appeared first on Ms. Magazine.