i was 48 and married. our daughter had just started her first year at college.

i was too old for birth control pills, and after my iud had spontaneously, and painfully, come out, i was back on the diaphragm. i’d never liked using it, so i resorted to a kind of rhythm method, using nothing when i thought i wasn’t ovulating, and the diaphragm when i thought i was. after two years of this, surprise, i got pregnant. there was no way i was going to have another child at this advanced age (when this putative child would have been 16, i would have been 65 — i’m not the kind of person who could do this). fortunately, abortion was legal and safe, although i had to find another gynecologist, since the one i’d been seeing seemed unwilling to be helpful. i have no regrets whatsoever – the abortion is the best thing i could have done.