I am a 33-year-old woman, mother of two children, and happily married. I’m gratefully employed and pursuing my graduate degree in clinical social work. I can say that a huge part of this wonderful life is owed to my decision to have an abortion when I was 19. Reproductive health care and contraception services have become a passion of mine since witnessing a family friend become pregnant at age 15.

When I was in high school, I started having sex with my (then) serious boyfriend. I was pressured immediately to get on birth control so we no longer had to use condoms. When a close family friend became pregnant at 15, I witnessed first hand the impact a young person’s pregnancy can have on a family, and on the unborn child. From that point on I advocated for safe sex alternatives and pursued reproductive health care on my own at Planned Parenthood. I never felt I could share the fact that I was sexually active with my parents or other family members, so I was on my own in finding birth control options. Planned Parenthood was my health care provider from age 15-19, when I stopped birth control pills due to the weight gain and depressive side effects I had been experiencing.

At age 19, I was in a serious relationship (with the man who would become my husband) and was sexually active. We chose to use condoms as birth control, and somehow a condom either broke or didn’t work correctly and I got pregnant. We were devastated and unsure of what to do. I had just recently lost my food-service job and we were both still living with our parents. It wasn’t even much of a conversation, I knew what I was going to do. Planned Parenthood referred me to a center that was able to help us. Emotionally overwhelmed and sick with early pregnancy nausea, we made my appointment and had it done. My boyfriend stood by me and cared for me during recovery. It was a lot to process emotionally, but I felt confident in the decision I made. Now happily married with two children, I am even more confident that my life would not be what it is now and I would not be the mother I am today if I did not have to experience that time in my life.

I am sharing my story because of the ease I had with getting the reproductive care I needed and how important it is that these services are available for women everywhere. We cannot go back to basement, coat-hanger abortions. Every woman deserves the choice to do what she will with her own body.