It’s been at least 25 years since my abortion. I didn’t realize at the time how fortunate my timing was- just 5 years after abortion was legalized in the U.S., and maybe a year before the protestors came out in droves to the clinics. I shudder to think how things might have gone for me just a few years earlier.
My abortion was a private matter; I shared with NO ONE. I made up a name at the clinic because I was terrified someone would find out that I was “pregnant out of wedlock”. The abortion was not shameful for me – the pregnancy itself was horrific.
Wow, how times have changed. Legalized abortion has removed the stigma of the “out of wedlock” pregnancy. Women have the choice to terminate a pregnancy, but also can now hold their heads high if, and when, they chose to bear a child. Because it truly is a choice, we can make those decisions with dignity.
There are certainly those who would like us to be ashamed of choosing abortion, and tell ludicrous stories of wretched abortions and lives wrecked due to abortion. I notice that none of them tell what it would have been like to have had the child.
Well, I know what it would have been like to have carried my pregnancy to term. A marriage to a rotten man that would have ended in divorce, a wrecked career that has instead, gratefully, gone incredibly well. I’ve had a wonderful life filled with children, though I’ve chosen not to have any myself. I had the incredible fortune to marry a man with two terrific children and now have 2 grandchildren as well.
Even before my marriage, there have always been children who needed me. Neighbors, friends, family … children flock to me like moths to the light. Regret my abortion? When there are millions of young to attend to on this planet? Get a life!
