A key ingredient of the contemporary first-person abortion narrative is the author’s declaration that she was not “allowed” by pro-abortion-rights people to feel ambivalent about her abortion.

“A story about abortion is not allowed to be a tale of nuance,” declared Monica Heisey in a Gawker essay published on Jan. 22. “For the right, recovery means repentance. For the left, you weren’t supposed to have to recover at all,” wrote Molly Crabapple in a 2013 Vice essay. “Emotions, I learned, could be regarded as a chink in the pro-choice armor,” wrote Kassi Underwood in a 2011 New York Daily News piece. “I shut up about my feelings because I valued my community, but my community was unsupportive — suspicious, even — of my gloom.”

In recent years, we have seen growing discontent from women who have had abortions about the terms of the abortion debate. The central criticism, as Heisey wrote, is that a purported focus on ideology “forces women’s lived experiences into opposing camps.”

These women have a right to their feelings, even if those feelings are contradictory. But feelings are not in danger of being outlawed. Abortion is. That’s why politics and ideology still matter. Claiming that both sides in the abortion debate are equally guilty of silencing women is like saying Vietnam War protesters spat on returning soldiers: There’s simply no evidence to support it.

In my days as a clinic volunteer, I was called a whore, a slut and a murderer by clinic protesters — and treated with nothing but respect by clinic employees. Some anti-abortion activists care about women’s emotional and physical well-being. But they are not the ones standing in front of clinics shrieking at teenage “whores.” Outside the clinic door, only one side spews misogynistic invective, exponentially compounding the pain of a potentially wrenching choice.

As Peg Johnston, the executive director of an upstate New York clinic and chairwoman of the Abortion Conversation Project once put it, “We know that finding a middle ground for women to tell their stories without political overtones is helpful to their emotional health.” According to Planned Parenthood’s website, “Only you can decide what is best for you. But we are here to help.” NARAL Pro-Choice America recently posted a link to a 2015 Guardian piece that includes stories from women who were anguished by their abortions as well as from those who identify as anti-abortion. The National Abortion Federation’s website counsels women to talk to clinic staff about their concerns if they are feeling pressured by parents, partners or friends to have an abortion.