i was seventeen years old and in an abusive relationship with a man who was twenty-five, enough said there! i got pregnant and thought to myself, i don't want to be tied to him for the next eighteen years and i also don't have any business trying to raise a child.

i was 20-years old when i found out i was 5 weeks pregnant. i hadn't been with the father very long, and while i was crazy about him, we weren't ready to be parents, let alone parents together.

i was 21 when a routine physical showed i was pregnant. i was on the depo shot and in a committed relationship. i was also going to college full time and working full time.

in 1974 i found my twenty year old self alone and pregnant. i was in my senior year of college in chicago and applying to graduate school.

it was august. i remember because we were camping with the kids. my belly had a strange feeling to it; puffy but not gas. i had had that before- 10, 8 and 6 years earlier. oh, please, no.

i was irresponsible. end of story. i wish that i had more guidance from my mother or doctors on which type of birth control would have best for me, i.e.- a non-hormonal iud.