i am a 23 year old woman from a small, extremely conservative town in rural ohio. for years, i was fed ridiculous information in school and at church. i was taught that masturbation causes pregnancy, hiv is a death sentence and condoms are ineffective and dangerous. over and over it was drilled into our heads that abortion was murder. and i believed it all until the day it happened to me.<\/p>\n
i changed my mind on january 3, 2009, when i found out i was pregnant. 23 days earlier, on my 19th birthday, i became a victim of sexual assault. i had been on birth control since i was 12 to combat my endometriosis and adenomyosis, but since i moved to school and began supporting myself, i could no longer afford the $75\/month to pay for my birth control. so, when i was assaulted, i was not protected against pregnancy.<\/p>\n
on top of the many emotional problems i was facing after the assault, i was in a lot of physical pain. i had my suspicions so i took a pregnancy test and it was positive. while i knew it was a possibility, the pregnancy was still a shock to me and i knew that carrying to term would not be an option for me at that point. due to the many reproductive health problems i faced, i was well aware of what i would face as an expectant mother. i would be considered a “high risk” patient and have to go in for ultrasounds every other week. co-pays are expensive. i wouldn’t be able to afford it. i would also need to be on special medications that would have totaled almost $200\/month.<\/p>\n
the night i was assaulted was one of the scariest, most horrible nights of my life. to have a child through something like that would be devastating for me. as much as i would have loved that child, i would have never been able to give it the life that it deserved. i would never be able to look at it and love it fully knowing how it was conceived. there would be too much pain.<\/p>\n
after i found out about the pregnancy and before plans were made for my abortion, i had heavily considered suicide. i was depressed. i was scared. i had no one i could tell. i would have rather died than carry the child of my rapist. i have never regretted my decision to have the abortion. i was comforted by the wonderful nurses at the clinic and saw a counselor there for several months after the procedure to help me cope. it was one of the best medical experiences i have ever had. i have never felt more compassion or kindness from a physician and their staff.<\/p>\n
because of the abortion i was able to continue school. i went on to graduate from my university cum laude with a degree in visual communications. i have a job and i pay taxes. none of this would have been possible without my decision to follow through with my abortion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
i am a 23 year old woman from a small, extremely conservative town in rural ohio. for years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_世界杯2022亚洲预选赛b组 ":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19588"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/世界杯2022亚洲预选赛b组 ?parent=19588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}