I discovered that I was pregnant just 1 month from my 19th birthday. I never had any difficulty deciding what I was going to do. My boyfriend and I had been together 3 years but we were still so young and I had just finished my first year of college and he was about to start his.
As soon as I found out, I started looking through the Yellow Pages for clinics. I made an appointment for an abortion in a nearby town since my town had no clinics that provided this service. The appointment was for a week before my 19th birthday.
I was very scared of what was going to happen but it all went fine. I did not experience any complications and only bled for about 2 days afterward. I did have some mood swings but this was because my hormone levels had changed drastically very quickly.
It has been 19 years since I had my abortion and I have never regretted it. I actually don’t really think about it very often. I have not told many people because, while I am not ashamed, lots of people just do not understand and I really do not feel I need to explain my decisions to others.
When I hear of anti-choice groups talking about how abortion wrecks havoc on women’s emotional health and how they feel guilty, it makes me mad because I definitely made the right choice. I was not ready for children or to settle down. I have since decided I do not want children at all and would not hesitate to make the same decision again if circumstances call for it.
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