"My opinion, after three pregnancies and three different outcomes, is that no politician has the right to choose for me or my daughter."

Story No. 361: Patient from Massachusetts

My opinion, after three pregnancies and three different outcomes, is that no politician has the right to choose for me or my daughter. I understand that the pro-life side wants to end legal access to abortion and think that no one ever wants to find herself having to choose, but it’s just not that simple.

The right to choose what happens inside your own body belongs to the individual. I wish that both sides could agree on a common set of principles to lower the abortion rate as much as possible.

Let’s decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies through both reproductive health care and education. Provide support to those who choose either path; provide support for women going through a pregnancy without their partner; and work for equal pay for equal work, access to quality education, paid family leave, and other things that would make this choice a true choice. I worry that this single issue divides women into two camps and is how men are keeping us from positions of power in society and keeping us from making changes that lift all women.