Brittany’s Story

I am 15 years old and I had my abortion in September 2004. My boyfriend and I had been together for six months and having sex for four months. We are and were in a very committed relationship and were practically inseparable and we had both lost our virginities to each other. We used condoms sometimes, but mostly the pull out method and the rhythm method. I had never had a late or missed period before, so I figured we didn’t need to be very careful about protection, as long as I tracked my cycle, and we either abstained from sex or used a condom during the week I might be ovulating. This worked fine for awhile, the problem was that after we had started having sex, my cycle changed, my period came a little later every month. And I had to estimate when I might get my period to see when I would ovulate. I had just asked my mom if she could get me on birth control to regulate my cycle. My family went on vacation for two weeks, during which I thought I would get my period. I didn’t. When I came back, my boyfriend came over and we walked to a drug store and got a pregnancy test, it came in a two pack. We took the first one together at a park, on the way back from the store. At first we thought I wasn’t pregnant because we couldn’t see the line. I was just having another late period. Then we looked again, because I thought I saw a line. It was really faint, but the instructions said that even a really light line, meant you were pregnant. And I was. I took the second test about a week later, but this time the line was a lot darker. Now we had to decide how to tell my mom. We thought we would go out to eat and tell her then. First I researched about abortion. I decided that was definitely what I wanted to do. We went out to eat with my mom, but we were too scared to tell her. We ended up writing her a note, that my boyfriend gave her when she dropped him off at home that night. I wish we had done it differently, but we didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t mad or anything. She promised not to tell my dad, and he still hasn’t found out (which I am very thankful for). She took me to the abortion clinic where they took my blood type, did an ultra sound, and showed me a movie about all my choices, but because of a law, I had to wait 24 hours before I could actually have it done. When I went in they gave me a shot called twilight, so I don’t remember very much at all from the actually procedure. I remember them giving me the shot, and then I remember my mom and a nurse walking me to the recovery room. I had no cramping at all, and I bled very lightly. I was 7 weeks pregnant. Before I went home I got a shot of depo. The next day I went to school, (my first day of school going into the tenth grade). I’m not sorry that I did it at all, there is no way I could have a baby when I’m fifteen, no one should have to unless its there choice and they feel they are ready for it.