My name is Erin and I am now 24 years old. I became pregnant my reshman year of college. I was 18 at the time. The father was a friend of mine. We had dated, or something along the lines of that. We were good friends who basically began sleeping together, and after the fact, started dating. He was 23 at the time. I found out that I was pregnant on Christmas night. I was a few weeks late on my period and for some stupid reason decided to take a test that night. When I saw that it was positive, I flipped out. I called him and told him the bad news. We immediately began thinking of abortion.
After discussing the issue with my older sister, we decided that abortion was my best option. I come from a very strict family, and keeping the baby was completely out of the question for me. My “boyfriend” had another child already that had been adopted out two years earlier. He didn’t feel that he could handle another adoption, and frankly, I don’t think I could have handled one either. I made my appointment and went in at the early hours of January 2. It was a physically painless procedure for me, and I hardly remember a thing about it. I woke up dazed, and a little confused. My “boyfriend” had driven me there, so he took me to his house afterwards to recuperate.
I never really thought about it again, until I got married a year ago. My husband and I would like to have a child. I have known him for eight years, and he knows about the abortion. He knew me before I had it, and understands and respects the decision that I made at that time. Had I not had the abortion, I would have never finished college. I now have a great job, a very happy marriage, and I now know that I am ready to now have a child. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t believe that abortion is the right choice for everyone. I realize that if I had used protection, I probably wouldn’t have been in that terrible situation to begin with. Having an abortion doesn’t make me a horrible person in my eyes. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone handles them in different ways. Getting pregnant at 18 was my mistake and I handled it by getting an abortion.
