i studied political science in college, and somewhere along the way i chose choice as my main issue.

not because of a personal experience or because of a friend or family member’s experience, just because i saw the assault on women’s rights and believed that it was someone’s job to counter-act it.

a year after graduating from college i moved halfway across the country to work on a political campaign. i was trying to help elect a pro-choice female candidate. two months after moving to a state where i knew only a handful of people, the unthinkable, “it could never happen to me” thing happened despite the use of two kinds of birth control.

i barely made enough money to support myself, and still occasionally called home to borrow a few dollars to get me to payday. campaigns can require up to 80 hour work weeks and this was my first job in the field. i knew i couldn’t afford a child. my career would be over just it had started. i would end up working for near minimum wage, collecting state assistance, and living with my parents.

in tears i called my mother, and she revealed to me that at the age of 16, just after roe v. wade, she had been in the same situation. i didn’t ask many questions, but she told me she never regretted having an abortion. she wouldn’t have the wonderful life with a loving husband of 35 years or four successful children if she had become a mother at the age of 16. we had never discussed abortion before.

she told me that she’d support any decision i made.

so i made the decision to have an abortion so that i could have the future i had spent years working towards. luckily, i was fortunate enough to be living in a state without many restrictions, and i was fortunate enough to find a clinic that accepted my health insurance. even with insurance, the trip across the state was more than i could afford.

the only regret i could conceive was having to talk about abortion on a professional level with the guilt of a personal story. it’s been a year now, and i don’t feel any guilt. thanks to the support of my mother, i’ve turned this personal story into a triumph.

most women are not fortunate enough to have transportation to a clinic, heath insurance that will cover the cost of an abortion, or a family member who can provide them with extra money in times of need. but i was. most of all, though, i was lucky enough to have the support of a family member who had been in my shoes.