I'm 22, with two bachelor degrees, about to start graduate school in five days; and my boyfriend is 24, graduating from undergrad this December (with two degrees as well) and starting medical school that next July.

During my years in undergrad I had always felt that if I got pregnant at anytime before I graduated I would not get an abortion because I was old enough to take care of those responsibilities (especially if it were in my last two years of undergrad). But when it actually happen to me the summer after I graduated, that decision wasn't so easy. My boyfriend, like me, did not want a child right now but if I decided to keep it, we would both make it work ... although we were not naive to the fact that it would be extremely difficult because we would both be in professional school. He did NOT want me to drop out of graduate school (and I wouldn't) and he assured me that my decision to keep a child would not deter him from continuing his education in medical school as well. In fact, he said that we would have to get married as soon as possible if I were to keep the child ... very contrary to the horror stories that I have heard before from baby fathers on television and from my girlfriends. I didn't want to marry him though, at least not yet because we weren't in love yet, simply put.

My mother had an abortion when she was a teenager, just out of high school and fresh in college but her outlook on abortion wasn't what you would expect it to be. I had remember her telling me some years ago that if it ever happened to me, I wouldn't have to get an abortion because WE would pay for it … NOT comforting. Needless to say I didn't feel comfortable telling any member of my family and I kept it all between myself, my boyfriend and a very close friend of mine that I had accompanied to an abortion a year earlier (and that wouldn't tell my business to anyone).

After having a conversation with my boyfriend, I made an appointment at the clinic the very next day. However I was still contemplating if I wanted to get it done. I was thinking of keeping the baby for reasons that were not rational: I was too old, people say that babies are miracles from God, etc. Ultimately, I decided to keep the appointment at Planned Parenthood because I was so extremely miserable and I kept thinking, if this is what I'm going through now, how am I going to be able to go through nine months and labor...not to mention trying to take care of a child via the income of a grad and med school student (because I definitely didn't want to be another African American statistic on welfare and WIC; that'd upset conservatives anymore than they already were). Bottom line was...I didn't want this baby 100%.

My boyfriend (who came with me on the appointment) and I don't regret this decision at all. The experience was emotional but hey, I'm human and I was calm within the next hour (the people in the clinic are very supportive and sensitive to your needs).

We both want children but we don't want them until we can feed them and provide for them like children really deserve to be taken care of.