the worst part about having had an abortion (thankfully a legal one) is that at age 64 i still don’t want to use my name because of feeling judged by other people. it is a shame that any one feels the right to question such a personal choice and to assign their own opinion to it.

i was a naive young girl, lied to by my first lover (told me he was sterile and that i didn’t need to get birth control when i asked about it). i was a struggling student, without the option of postponing my education. i have no regrets about what i did and i believe strongly that these choices are no one’s business but the couple involved–with 51% of the vote coming from the woman.

when i discovered i was pregnant against my will, i soon learned that several friends had already walked this road and their advice and support meant the world to me. one had to go to sweden to get an abortion, two others had illegal ones.

when i hear women who were forced by their parents to undergo an abortion use that experience and anguish to argue against legal abortion, i wonder if it never occurs to them that being forced by others to do something they didn’t want to is actually the real problem they have.