in 1971, a year before roe v wade, i was a 22 year old, married nursing student in denton, texas. i contracted tuberculosis and was placed on a regimen of multiple medications in an effort to control the disease.

i'm 67 years and never regretted having my four abortions. they all had a reason, that being i didn't want my partner's to be a father to my child. all abortions were from 3 different partners.

i had an abortion at barely 16 years old. it wasn't my first idea, but i wasn't in a relationship and had been abusing drugs regularly.

i grew up catholic in the chicago suburbs. there was a lot of emphasis placed on the 10 commandments and morality. i remember when i was young and thinking that having an abortion was absolute: you killed, and therefore you are forever a bad person.

i always thought i'd have a child at 27. that's the age my mother had me, the age my grandmother was when she had my mother. but when i became pregnant at 27, it wasn't the way i had seen it.

in early 2010 i woke up in bed at my boyfriend's house with a pain in my abdomen. the pain persisted and became unbearable over the course of an hour and he decided to take me to the hospital.