Mine

Mine was a zine written by Meredith Stern also known as Merrydeath who had previously written Crude Noise.

The first issue had the subtitle – An Anthology of Women’s Choices. It was a compilation of emotionally stunning women’s stories, first hand experiences of abortions and the history of the topic. The kind of abortions and contexts in which they happened differ from story to story. There are descriptions of self administered herbal abortions performed with confidence, fear, scepticism and faith. There are stories of women who had to secretly organise their own medical abortions and deal with the emotional and physical consequences alone as well as stories of women who receive support. These told about clinical abortion, childbirth, forced sterilization, the abortion inducing drug RU486, herbal abortion, illegal abortion, contraceptives and more. Through this indepth study, Meredith was perhaps trying to combat the stigma surrounding the topic. The zine passionately and emphatically speaks to the overwhelming need for safe, accessible, low-cost abortions, and is critical of the often cold and rushed abortion clinics and their overworked practitioners. The stories were not only about abortion but also about the women’s lives and the events leading up to and after the abortions. The second issue of Mine had the subtitle An Anthology of Reproductive Rights. This was another compilation of such stories. Many of the articles were tied together by themes of guilt, empowerment, frustration with doctors and coming to terms with difficult decisions. In the second issue Merrydeath tried to get more stories from women of colour. In both issues Merrydeath provided artwork.

See librarian for LibraryThing.com Sonya Green's review of Mine, among other health zines, in Library Journal, Nov. 1, 2008.