I had an abortion 12 years ago at the age of 25. I had just started dating my boyfriend at the time when I became pregnant.
I was shocked. Soon after I found out, my boyfriend broke up with me — he said he couldn’t deal with it. Unfortunately, I had to deal with it. I did not have health insurance, was not making much money at all and the boyfriend that got me pregnant was unemployed.
A lot of emotions come up when you deal with an unplanned pregnancy but I knew without a doubt that this was not the way I wanted to bring a child into this world. I had a good friend of mine drop me off at the hospital where I had the abortion. I remember being nervous and a nurse told me “you will be fine, it is a simple procedure” I am sure what she meant by simple is that it was a simple procedure medically — and she was right. It was painless and I was well taken care of by the hospital staff. Treated with respect and kindness.
The procedure was simple. What is not simple is a large part of society’s reaction to abortion. The hardest part for me was not the procedure but dealing with comments from close family members/and the constant negative comments towards women that get abortions made by people. My mother at the time said “you are killing your baby” and as recently as two years ago my sister threw the abortion in my face during an argument, stating that I killed my baby and I was a horrible person. Needless to say, my family has hurt me over this issue way more than any procedure.
I can without hesitation state that I have absolutely NO REGRETS over it. I do not dwell on what could have been or what if. I know I did the right thing.
The extreme right would like everyone to think that women that have abortions live to regret it, become depressed the rest of their lives…this is not the case for most. And I can say without a doubt this is not the case for me. And if there is any regrets — I regret telling my mother and sister about it. Every woman has the right to control her life and her body. I was executing this right. I will forever support a woman’s right to choose.