1972

July 1972. College Jr. Three wks off the pill…Summer cross-country road trip from Michigan to California with gal pal Sandi, who’d just had her abortion. Visiting my sister in San Francisco, me sluggish, Sandi saying “I think you’re preggers.” Me saying, “no way, I’ll get tested to prove you wrong!” I’m pregnant. Abortion wasn’t legal in every state, certainly not in CA. My sister’s housemate called her abortionist brother in NYC, asking for another free favor…She flew with me to NYC, procedure swift, I rested briefly, then found myself groggily slumped in a doorway off the street. The $250 round trip air fare cancelled out the normal abortion cost. Sandi & I continued our vacay driving through Victoria, B.C. then back home. I had a major epiphany while sitting in the passenger seat, legs huddled to my chest: my vagina was now a portal of a matriarchal lineage, linking me into a past, present, and future society of womanhood, women with fertile wombs, women who’ve become mothers, all my sisters throughout time, whether or not they were able to birth in their own freedom of choice…