I’d like to tell a story with two parts. The first is from when I was in my twenties. Like many women in college, I had a steady boyfriend and was sexually active. I was also responsible and used birth control. But it failed and I became pregnant. Having that child would have tied me for the rest of my life to that boyfriend, who was verbally and emotionally abusive. My child would have grown up in that environment: unwanted, abused, with emotionally immature parents. I would not have finished my degree, nor would I have launched my career (as a trauma therapist). I would have been undereducated, underemployed, abused, and resentful.

Instead, I had an abortion. I finished my degree. I started a successful career I am passionate about, helping people. I grew as a person and learned how to choose good partners. I fell in love with a wonderful man, and had a beautiful daughter who is loved above all else in our lives. That daughter, that marriage, that career would not exist if the earlier abortion hadn’t happened. Not only I, not only my husband and daughter, but the whole world is so much better off that I had that choice.