I was scheduled to leave for the Air Force in the middle of that summer. When the time came to leave my home in Virginia, I arrived at MEPS in West Virginia (where you go so they can check you out one more time before actually going to boot camp) and found out there that I was pregnant. I called a friend to come pick me up, and ended up telling my parents that my group had been canceled (which is actually what my recruiter told me to tell them). Of course I didn't know who's it was considering my past. I also knew that there was no way I could tell my parents and that there was no way I could have a baby at that time in my life.

I found a clinic online in West Virginia that would do the procedure for underage girls if they had their diploma, I luckily I had graduated early so that is where I chose to go. I had a friend of mine drive me and told my parents I was spending the night with a friend. The procedure went very smoothly. No protesters or anything around, and all the staff were very nice to me. They even gave me birth control when I left.

I ended up deciding not to go into the Air Force but to move to California right after I turned 18, and I will never forget the morning I left. My mother had seen the follow up paper from the clinic in my bathroom and asked me about it right before I was leaving. It broke my heart to tell her, but she didn't say anything and we haven't talked about it since.

I am now 21, I have a good job and I have lived here in California with my boyfriend for 3.5 years. I am not sorry for having the abortion, I know that I would not have been a good parent at that time in my life, and I feel that I have become a better person because of that experience. Not a day goes by that I don't thank all who came before me in preserving my right to choose. Please don't give up your right to choose!