It was about 5 months before I turned 25 when I met this guy and we started dating. We had a lot of fun and got serious pretty quickly. I got this great job offer and would be over-seas for at least six months. Things were going well, so we thought we would try out the long-distance thing. I went up North to say goodbye to my family before flying off when I realized that I was late. I have never been one to keep very good track of my cycle, so by the time I noticed I was maybe a week and a half late. I thought that I could be pregnant then I laughed it off. There was no way. I had had a few scares in the past so I figured it was the same thing. A few days later I got really nervous. I called my boyfriend and told him how worried I was and he told me to take the test. I went to a nearby mall, and couldn’t even wait to go home, I took the test right there in the public bathroom. When I saw that I was pregnant, I couldn’t believe it. It was so surreal, I almost laughed. I called my boyfriend to tell him, and he was just as shocked. We had discussed before that if I was to get pregnant, neither of us were ready to go down that road. He already had kids from a previous relationship and I come from a very religious family.
I went to a clinic and found that I was only about 3.5 weeks pregnant. It was good that I was not that far along, but no clinic or hospital would do the procedure unless I was at least 5 weeks pregnant. That would have been fine, if I wasn’t leaving the country in 5 days. This is when I started to panic. I called every clinic I could get a hold of, every doctor I could, but no one would do the procedure. To make matters worse, I was going to a country where abortion was illegal. Fortunately, 2 days before I was leaving, I found a website, womenonweb.org that provides women in countries where abortion is illegal with the abortion pill (I am so thankful for that organization, they really help you as much as possible through the whole process). I got the pill sent to the address I would be at, but the 2 weeks I had to wait were the worst of my life. Not only was I at a new job in a new place, I had morning, afternoon and evening sickness. I was scared that the pills wouldn’t arrive on time (you had to take them before you were 9 weeks along) or worse, that they wouldn’t work. They finally arrived the day I was headed off to a conference. Because I didn’t want to wait any longer, I took them while I was at the conference. I was sick and in pain a lot of the time, but I got through it. I am pretty sure I know when “it” came out, but I wasn’t struck with sadness, more awe. All I thought was, that thing is what has made me miserable for the past couple of weeks? I went back to the conference, and went on with my life.
About a month later, I went to a doctor and everything was fine. Sometimes I think I’m strange, or maybe I am not a loving person, because it doesn’t bother me. Its not that I want to do it over and over, but a circumstance arose, and I dealt with it the best way possible.
