Laura's Story

My boyfriend and I had been together for about 4-5 months. My period was a few weeks late and my boobs were suddenly a lot bigger, I was craving fried shrimp and I was getting nauseous in the evenings. It was not awesome. I stressed for about a week and finally got up the nerve to tell my boyfriend. His response was “yeah….I thought so. So what do you want to do?” I told him I didn’t want to have a baby and a look of absolute relief crossed his face as he said “Me neither.”

We went to Planned Parenthood and got officially tested. They asked what I wanted and I said I wanted an abortion. They asked if I was sure and we both said we were. They gave me a list of doctors in our area and sent us home.

We randomly picked a doctor that would be covered by our insurance plan and made an appointment. We chose a surgical abortion because a medical abortion just sounded really uncomfortable and strenuous. During this time, I told a couple of my friends and they were all really supportive of me.

As the day drew closer, I was nervous but also anxious to have it done. This pregnancy was sucking the life out of me. I was tired constantly, nauseous all the time and would burst into tears at the slightest provocation. It was awful.

When the day came, everything went so smoothly. The doctor gave me a general anesthetic. There was some mild pain and cramping, but nothing bad at all. I was tired and a bit unsteady, but my boyfriend drove me home and I took and nap and by that evening I felt great.

I have never regretted my decision. My boyfriend eventually became my husband. Neither of us want children and while we have taken many more precautions (I have an IUD now and my husband has made an appointment for a vasectomy) if an accident ever occurred, we would make the same choice again. Occasionally we will say to one another, “Hey! Do you realize that we would have a 5 year old child right now?” And we laugh and thank god that we had an option, because I do not want children and for me, as an adoptee I have experienced firsthand the trauma of a relinquished child, so adoption has –never- been an option and never will be. I am so happy to live in a society where we have the choice of terminating a pregnancy and make it a point to help make sure society stays that way through education, activism and support. I’m not sorry.