I got pregnant the day before my 42nd birthday, a working mother with a still-nursing 1 1/2 year old and a 9 year old I was fully homeschooling in the midst of a global pandemic. I was on progestin-only birth control which I took like clockwork.

I love my daughters to the moon and back. My family is complete. Adding to it was beyond my capabilities in that moment, at least for how I wanted to provide for them. I quietly did a medication abortion at 6 weeks. It was like having my period condensed into an afternoon, then it was over.

I fretted and fretted during the couple of weeks between my pregnancy test and my abortion. I read so many stories on here! Now it’s two years later, and I’m just finally getting to writing my own because life has just carried on as before, exactly how I wanted it to, busy as a working mom. I am thankful I live in a liberal state and had the means to carry out my business legally, privately, and safely. I wish everyone was so fortunate. My grandfather’s sister died of a botched back-alley abortion in the late 1930s. It gives me chills to consider our different outcomes. We can’t go back.