I had an abortion twenty-five years ago. My mother suffered mental illness and had severe post partum depression (on the order of Andrea Yates) through 3 pregnancies and births. This was before birth control and legal abortion. After the 3rd she was committed to a mental institution where she remains today. My mother was rarely mentally "present" and my sibling and I were constantly subjected to her bizarre behavior. She conceived her 3rd child while in a mental institution. She gave birth and returned to that institution. My father was constantly depressed and when he found another partner, he left us with an older relative. This person, who was 65 at the time, was to take care of an infant, plot two other children. Naturally she was stressed by the situation. I don't want to get into details, but up to that point my life was pretty awful. I grew up knowing that I would never want to subject another person to what I went through. I found myself pregnant just a few months after I married. I had just started college and had recovered from my own depression that included hospitalization, 4 years prior. I remember thanking the doctor after the abortion and feeling that a great weight had been lifted from me. I feel so sorry for my mother; I would have forgiven her if she had aborted anyone of us, if it could have eased her suffering. Many of my friends had abortions when they were younger, they don't seem to regret it at all, except to say "I wish I had been ready for the responsibility" or "the children I have now have a father".
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