I was thinking that there might be acceptance at least in some circles if she had never wanted to follow through with a pregnancy and was forced to (e.g. child of a rape, abortion unavailable or inaccessible for some reason), but it would be controversial.
I also think there is a difference between 'I never wanted to have a baby' and 'I never wanted to raise children.' Like, it does things to your body that are permanent, but having a baby doesn't necessitate raising one, and likewise, there are ways that you can wind up with children to raise that you didn't necessarily want and don't feel like you can walk away from (eg. your partner has children from another relationship, you get wardship of children of relatives somehow). I think there are contexts in both of those where a woman could get away with saying she has regrets.
But "I chose to have children and now I wish I hadn't" is trickier.
On the other hand - have you ever read A Doll's House by Ibsen? The main character in that winds up abdicating all of her family responsibilities because she feels trapped by her life and feels no sense of fulfillment - written in Denmark in 1879...
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I also think there is a difference between 'I never wanted to have a baby' and 'I never wanted to raise children.' Like, it does things to your body that are permanent, but having a baby doesn't necessitate raising one, and likewise, there are ways that you can wind up with children to raise that you didn't necessarily want and don't feel like you can walk away from (eg. your partner has children from another relationship, you get wardship of children of relatives somehow). I think there are contexts in both of those where a woman could get away with saying she has regrets.
But "I chose to have children and now I wish I hadn't" is trickier.
On the other hand - have you ever read A Doll's House by Ibsen? The main character in that winds up abdicating all of her family responsibilities because she feels trapped by her life and feels no sense of fulfillment - written in Denmark in 1879...