"I had numbers of abortions in my youth; but I'm also certain B.R. did not pay for any of them. I remember B.R. coming to visit me in my nursing home, after an abortion (almost certainly Dec. 1917). I remember being surprised that he didn't seem upset by my (very painful) abortion. Abortions need not be secret."

Archival note: Colette was in a nursing home in Dec. 1918, presumably for the abortion she mentions in this letter. The word "abortion" is not used in the correspondence.