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I had an abortion when I was 19, my first year in college. I got pregnant with my high school boyfriend while I was on birth control, unfortunately due to the common error of human error. I had missed a day and it was just enough to not be enough.

I knew that I did not want a child and could not support it and neither could my boyfriend. It was a very traumatic experience but mostly because I was not supported. My boyfriend could not deal and escaped by drinking, I did not tell my parents and only had my best friend to support me, who actually took me to the appointment and went in with me. Aside from the emotional upheaval of experiencing the procedure, I have not regretted my decision for an instant. Not right afterward, not now 8 years later. I am very happy that I was able to have the procedure. It was not the right time, nor the right situation. It has not destroyed my life. My right to control my life and my situation and my body is the most important thing. I am not pro-death, I am pro-choice. It is a choice and it affects so many things for a woman and a family. The woman and her partner should be the ONLY ones to make that kind of a decision. Not the state, not the country, not their religion or other peoples religion.

What enrages me is that the pro-life movement thinks that to ban abortion means that it will go away and that people will stop having them. That is the largest denial and avoidance of true life that I have ever experienced. It will push it underground and force woman to seek extremely dangerous situations, and they WILL seek it out. There is never talk of how this country would support the addition flood of children to welfare and low-income homes who will need government assistance to support these unexpected children, or the flood of children that are in need of adoption, or even increasing sex education in schools. Abstinence is the most ridiculous way to teach high school students about sex. If you pretend it does not exist it does not go away. You cannot treat kids like ostriches. Unwanted and unexpected pregnancies happen to everyone from every economic and denominational background. This is not a low-income anomaly. It happens to families that believe in teaching only abstinence. It HAPPENS! Keep abortion a choice and implement better education and support services for the choice to terminate, the choice to give a child up for adoption, and the choice to keep and raise the child.

If you want to decrease the rate of abortions, education need to be increased, not decreased.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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