In today’s edition of The Daily Evergreen, you may have noticed something different. In our article ‘You know her,’ we wrote about local women and their experiences with abortion following the #YouKnowMe movement on social media.

We hope this story will inform, humanize and drive productive conversations about abortion.

Our primary sources are not politicians, advocacy groups or even healthcare providers. Instead, we asked women to step forward and share their firsthand experiences — the good, the bad and the ugly. We also talked to two sources’ partners to get their perspectives.

We hear politicians speak about abortion plenty in the news, but rarely hear the stories of the women and men actually affected by abortion policies.

Political talking points, whether they support or oppose access to abortion, often lack nuance and don’t reflect women’s real-life abortion experiences. The issue of abortion is both political and personal.

For this story, we made an effort to focus on the deeply personal side of a highly politicized issue. Most politicians cannot tell firsthand stories of abortion. Women who have had abortions can.