i had an abortion when i was 20, in 2007.

i was 22 when i had my abortion. i had just graduated college and moved across the country to live with my boyfriend. i was on birth control, but not diligent about taking it, i used to joke with my friends that i was infertile.

i am 57 years old and just two people know i have had an abortion - my partner at the time and my sister. i have never told a soul - until now - that i have actually had three. the shame has been too great.

i had an abortion in 1969. i had tried to get birth control pills but the doctor refused to give me a prescription because he didn't believe in premarital sex.

i was 27, in my second year of graduate school and in the second year of a four year work contract, when i found out i was unexpectedly pregnant. the father, and my then boyfriend, did not care to have a child and i was unprepared to have one by myself. it was a lose-lose choice as far as i was concerned, yet i am grateful that i had the choice.

i write down this story with my beautiful 3 month old daughter asleep in my arms. as i approached my late thirties without yet finding the live of my life i decided to simply go ahead and have a child on my own.