I am a 22 year old female who has recently graduated from college. I’m living in D.C. Starting my career with my dream job and off of my parents payroll; paying my own rent, paying for my own activities and working for my dream company. I moved here not on any birth control because I was sexually inactive for the past 5 months, but once I moved here I met a guy. We had been casually dating for 2 months when I scheduled an appointment to have a copper IUD put in.

But as life goes, we got drunk one night and had sex without a condom. 5 days later I had a UTI and went to the local urgent care to get antibiotics, the doctor informed me that I did have a UTI and I was also barely 4 weeks pregnant. Shocked, I started to laugh. She gave me the number of a trusted nurse whom I called right away. She stayed on the phone with me for over an hour as I made an appointment and she talked me through my options.

I had to live being pregnant for 2 more weeks because of how early I was, which bothered me only because I didn’t tell anyone besides my mother. I didn’t even want to know I was pregnant and I was the one who was pregnant, so I decided not to tell anyone.

2 weeks later, I went to the clinic where an extremely nice and smart OBGYN walked me through the surgical abortion I would have and then the immediate insertion of a copper IUD. She was extremely laid back and supportive and made sure that I had an all-female staff working on me that day. She gave me the perfect amount of drugs, where I felt painless but not loopy and she also gave me an anti-anxiety pill. She let my mother come back and hold my hand during the procedure, I didn’t even know anything was happening until she told me she was done and was going to insert the IUD, which didn’t hurt either.

I had VERY minimal bleeding and cramping, so little that I got concerned and called the OBGYN who just informed me it was because I was so early on. I rested for the rest of the day, slept and my roommate made me pasta. The next day I went shopping with my mom and went about my life.

My story is probably the best case scenario of an early term abortion, but I want to share it because this is what abortion experiences could be like for women with the right doctors and support.