When I was thirty-six and the mother of two children, aged six and one-and-a-half, I got pregnant unexpectedly. I had to use fertility pills to get pregnant for both of my previous pregnancies, and I thought that nursing would provide me with added protection. I had not gotten my period back, and I was shocked. I had two wonderful children, and my husband, a recovering alcoholic who had been hospitalized for suicidal depression when I was pregnant with my second child, was still caught up in his own issues. I did not feel that I had a partner to parent the children we had.

I was so grateful to be living at a time when I could choose not to have this child. I knew that my marriage was shaky and that my husband’s mental health was compromised. I made arrangements to go to an abortion clinic and had an abortion within the first eight weeks. It was quick, it was easy, and I recovered right away. I have never regretted my decision and as a result I was able to be a good parent to my two children. A third child would have made my life unmanageable and slowed me from finally getting free of my marriage.