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| Kate's Story |
I’m not sorry
At 17
I struggled with that choice
I knew in my heart
I was too young to be a mother
there was no question
I made plans immediately
had my boyfriend drop me off in front of the clinic
protesters waving their signs
there were only two
“You’ll regret this!” they assured me.
And I remember distinctly what I told them, as I walked through their path and into the awaiting clinic doors:
“You have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to mine.”
and that was it
the doors closed.
And when I arrived
They sat me in this room with all these other women
And later made me watch a film
just in case
And I remember waiting in that final room
looking around at all their faces
some had been there before, they proclaimed
and my name was called…
I lay down on that bed and I knew what was happening
yet couldn’t do much about it
just as they warned me
like a vacuum, really
All gone
In an instant.
And when it was over they made me get up
I was so tired
didn’t want to move
yet they made me change beds
and then woke me up again to eat cookies and drink juice
so tired …
and then they escorted me out the back door
where my boyfriend was waiting in his car
I think …
And we drove home
Quietly
to my parents’
where I went in my room to lay down
and he left to help his friend sell a car.
And I’m not sorry.

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