I had a legal abortion sixteen years ago. I was married, forty-four years old, with two children, one of them under two years old. I had no health insurance and knew if this pregnancy came to term it would be another caesarean.
The reason I got pregnant in the first place was that when the two year old was born, the physician was not allowed, at the Catholic hospital where the birth took place, to perform a tubal ligation. So I would have to reschedule another surgery at another hospital (all without health insurance). My husband and I talked it over and he agreed to a vasectomy. He procrastinated, ergo two years later, with contraception being basically over the counter products because of my age, and with him not being very cooperative with the condoms, etc., it happened.
I went alone to the clinic for the abortion, it was uneventful, and I’ve never regretted it for a moment. I have not, however, brought myself to tell my now seventeen year old daughter about the sibling she doesn’t have. But I made sure she has unquestioned birth control at all times. By the way, that darling husband filed for divorce after nineteen years of marriage and is off in his own world somewhere. I’m old enough to remember the illegal abortions (in the US) that my friends had to endure in the late sixties and am grateful that in my time of need a legal abortion was available. I hope this helps someone.
