i used to be one of those women who said that, while philosophically i believed in a woman’s right to choose, i knew that abortion wasn’t for me. i was very focused on becoming a mom. when my eldest daughter was five years old, i had a second daughter with a congenital heart defect who died at ten days old. subsequently i had a miscarriage, and then my third daughter came along two years after that. those were all planned, very much wanted pregnancies. when my youngest was eighteen months old, my birth control failed and i got pregnant again. i was devastated; i felt that having another child would tax me emotionally and leave me unable to give my living children what they needed, so i had an abortion at a clinic in rockford, illinois. it was pretty awful, actually, and i was glad that i’d never have to do that again. except that my birth control failed again a year and a half later, and i still couldn’t imagine having another child. i had another abortion at a clinic in madison, wisconsin. this time it was a much better experience, and i have nothing but praise for the doctors and nurses who perform this service.