I am 20 years old and I had an abortion. I have no regrets and will fight tooth and nail to make sure women ALWAYS have the right to choose. I had my procedure about a week ago. I am in an incredibly committed relationship with a wonderful, loving man who completely supported me and paid for the entire abortion. My insurance would not cover it so we ended up paying almost $400. In our 3-year relationship we always knew we would get married and have children. But we were both completely unprepared for this. I have been having problems with my period my whole life. I was put on birth control at 14 to help keep my periods regular and light. My boyfriend and I have a very active sex life and never use condoms. My mistake, I know, but the pill worked wonderfully for me and we never had any problems. About a year ago I decided to stop using the pill, and start on the Depo shot. The doctor told me that I would stop having my period, but I has highly unprepared for all menstruation to cease a mere month after my first shot.
After nine months of use, I stopped taking Depo and acted very irresponsibly. I continued having unprotected sex with my boyfriend. I know my body and have always been very health conscious. I have very small breasts! So when they started to swell to over twice their normal size, I knew I was pregnant. This is the one thing I can say that I miss! I made an appointment with my OBGYN and stated my concerns. Unluckily for me, I must have been in the week’s time where pregnancy symptoms are dormant. I was given an ultrasound, which came back negative, and even a blood-drawn pregnancy test, which also came back negative. Given my history with abnormal periods, they gave me a drug called Progesterone, which is supposed to induce menstruation to resume a normal cycle. After I took it for a week and it still wasn’t working I went back in. That’s when I found out.
I cried for a bit and called my boyfriend to tell him the news. I must say I was extremely lucky to have him, he supported me unconditionally and told me not to worry, that he would take care of everything. We didn’t even have to talk about our options, I knew from the beginning that an abortion was absolutely the only choice.
When I went in for my procedure, they gave me another ultrasound which concluded that I was about 10 weeks pregnant. I chose not to look at the pictures, but my boyfriend was very interested, so out of respect for him I kept them. The day of the abortion was 3 days after my ultrasound. I was very surprised at how fast everything went. A few years ago I had to go with one of my friends for her procedure, and it took all day. I found out that I was actually the first appointment of the day. I chose to be sedated for the operation because I just don’t do well with pain. Everyone at the clinic was extremely cheerful and took any feelings of anxiety away. The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room to a very nice nurse telling me that I had a very concerned young man out front. Apparently I had been knocked out for almost an hour due to my sedation, and was actually in a very good mood when I left the clinic. The doctor told me that might happen, which made me laugh. After hearing all the side effects of bleeding and such, I prepared myself for the worst. But nothing! Just normal bleeding, although the blood clots of the first day startled me a bit.
Everything has been fine so far, and I go in for my follow-up appointment July 7. In my opinion there is no other choice I could have made. I was responsible and did the right thing for my SELF. Although I was thinking of my boyfriend’s feelings too, I wouldn’t have changed my mind had he thought otherwise. I had such a positive experience from my abortion, I am actually thinking of volunteering there, to help other women. My life is far more important to me than anyone’s opinions, and I have an incredible support system with my boyfriend and family. I wake up feeling relieved every day that I had the choice to do this.
