It was my second year in college when I found out I was pregnant. I did not plan to have kids at all, much less at that time in my life.

I was a 19 year old thousands of miles from family and desperate to find connections. This led me to make many bad decisions.

I had been in a stable relationship for over a year when, despite using birth control, I got pregnant. I had just started college that year and he hadn't started yet.

The hardest part about having an abortion has been allowing myself to mourn the loss of a potential child. I started to share my whole story, but the part that I want to shout from the rooftops is that I can mourn a loss and know I made the right decision at the same time.

I had an abortion in 1978. I was 17. It cost $200 and I never told my parents. I was absolutely not ready to be a parent. At the time, I was a high school drop out working as a cashier at a cafe.

I was 22 years old, working a retail job which is where I met my boyfriend at the time. My pregnancy came from bad sex during which he forgot to pull out.