my mother died after a long illness in 1970, my father in 1974, when i was 30. i had been suffering from clinical depression even before that.

at my usual women’s health appointment the doctor insisted on removing my iud. i eased my loneliness and pain with more than one man, and i got pregnant. i don’t even remember the names of those two men, i’m sorry to say, but abortion was newly legal, and i was lucky enough to be able to afford one. yes, i had an abortion, and i’ve never regretted it.