I recently cared for someone I will call Tasha, a patient who came to me for an early abortion. She was quiet and shy and came alone to the appointment that day, having navigated hours on public transportation.

She didn’t want to tell her parents or her sister because she “didn’t want this to ruin or bother their already stressful lives.” Through several members of our nurse and doctor team, we made sure that she was able to make this decision and sure of her decision. She was absolutely sure of her decision, saying, “I am merely a child myself, I am not ready to take care of a child at this time in my life.” She wanted to finish her sophomore year and she wanted to return to the art class she was missing.

We performed her abortion the next day, but I felt a sadness for her as she sat in the waiting area alone and recovered from her procedure alone, too scared and so stigmatized about what she had to do for herself that she couldn’t tell her family. Her ride that day was a sympathetic nurse she had met along the way in her care. Tasha, with her youth but resiliency and maturity beyond her years, lingers in my memory as a young person who knew what she needed but had to suffer through the isolating stigma that still surrounds this choice.