i was 23 and in a new relationship with a man that i already thought i would marry, but we had been together only two months when we had a condom failure, and a few weeks later i took a positive pregnancy test. i called my mom right away, sobbing. <\/p>\n
she said i had several choices, and that all of them had lifelong consequences, but that i didn’t have to have a baby if i didn’t want one. i did want to have kids, eventually, but i wanted a more stable relationship and financial base before i brought more people into the world. and more than anything, i felt very strongly about only bring very much wanted children into the world. i never wanted to tell my kids that i wasn’t 100% excited when i found out i was pregnant.<\/p>\n
when i told my boyfriend, he held me and told me he would support my decision no matter what. so i went to a women’s health clinic in my liberal pnw city (no protesters, no judgment — i’m so grateful i had such easy access!!) and had a counseling session with a doctor who agreed with my reasons for wanting an abortion and cleared me for the procedure. i took a valium. my mom and my boyfriend went with me, and held my hands during the procedure. i was devastated afterward. i had never been so sad. it was hard to make a decision like that, because it does cut off a potential pathway for all the lives involved. but i don’t regret my decision. not ever.<\/p>\n
i’m now married to that man — we’ve been together 16 years and married for 13. we have two beautiful children that we planned. when i found out i was pregnant with each of them, we both cried tears of joy, and the happiest days of my life are the days they were born. i’m so grateful i had the choice to have children when we were ready. we are better partners, people, and parents because we had that choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
i was 23 and in a new relationship with a man that i already thought i would marry, […]<\/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":[301],"class_list":["post-20055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion-stories","tag-mother"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20055"}],"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=20055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/世界杯2022亚洲预选赛b组 ?parent=20055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}