I chose my residency program so I could be an abortion provider. One of my first patients was a college student, Jessica*. She dropped out of school because she developed schizophrenia. Her mother brought her in to make sure she was on birth control since she knew Jessica was having sex. I met with them both and we talked about what kind of birth control Jessica wanted to use. She decided she wanted a diaphragm, so I fitted her with one. They came back a few weeks later when she missed her period, but she could not remember when her last period was. After a positive pregnancy test, they talked about both carrying the pregnancy to term and terminating the pregnancy, and decided together that the right thing to do was to have an abortion. If she couldn’t have an abortion, that would likely have been the end of financial stability for Jessica and her family.

*Name changed for privacy