i wasn\u2019t being irresponsible. i was on the pill. but still, i found myself staring in disbelief at two positive pregnancy tests as i sat on the bathroom floor in my rented apartment which i shared with two other roommates. it was my first week at my first job out of school and i couldn\u2019t believe this was happening.<\/p>\n
i\u2019m not special. in fact, nearly one in four women in the u.s. will have an abortion at some point in their life.<\/p>\n
mine is not a story about how i became pregnant after an assault, or how i was barely making ends meet and couldn\u2019t afford a baby. yes, i was young and just about to start my career, but i could have moved home and asked my family to help support me and this unborn embryo. that\u2019s not the point at all though. it\u2019s not about how desperate my situation was or wasn\u2019t. the decision about whether or not i was ready to become a parent is not something i need to explain or justify to anyone but myself (and in my case, my partner). the point is that i am an average american woman who pays taxes, works hard, picks up my dog\u2019s poop, and always returns my shopping cart to the grocery store instead of leaving it by my car like a jerk. and i am also a woman who has had an abortion. you know me.<\/p>\n
i am simply a human being who chose to start my career and settle down with the love of my life before deciding to start my family. i don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair for a group of male lawmakers to deny me that choice just because my body can betray me in a way that theirs cannot.<\/p>\n
i didn\u2019t make my decision flippantly. i don\u2019t hate children. in fact, i care so much about children that i\u2019ve spent nearly a decade teaching them, an experience that has solidified my belief that every child deserves to be greeted at birth by parents who are genuinely ready and willing to rear them.<\/p>\n
i wasn\u2019t ready or willing at 23, but i\u2019m ready now. i\u2019ve had time to work hard, grow my career, and bolster myself against the \u201cmotherhood penalty\u201d that will inevitably impact me once i do have a baby. if we take away women\u2019s freedom to choose when to become mothers, how long will it take for the wage gap to double, or triple, in size? is this part of your master plan, i want to ask the conservative lawmakers, to undo all of the gains women have made over the last half a century?<\/p>\n
i am not special. but i am not a criminal or a monster. i am a daughter, a wife, a friend, a neighbor. #youknowme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
i wasn\u2019t being irresponsible. i was on the pill. but still, i found myself staring in disbelief at […]<\/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":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20957"}],"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=20957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/世界杯2022亚洲预选赛b组 ?parent=20957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}