I was 26 when I had an abortion. I had been in another country for 6 weeks, visiting the man who was the love of my life. Unfortunately, I had to return to the US after that visit, and I was devastated.

I had always been responsible about using birth control, until I wasn’t. During the time when my heart was already broken, I had unprotected sex with a man I barely knew. I can’t remember another time when I did that, but it happened that night. I became pregnant from that night of not being careful, and that only added to my devastation.

At the time, I was very poor. I had taken off from my job for 5 months to go overseas, and had no income during that time. My life was not settled enough for me to bring a child into the world. Plus, being pregnant and unmarried was not the way I wanted to have a child.

I told my boyfriend about being pregnant. He was supportive, but the child wasn’t his, and he was still overseas. Fortunately, this was in 1976, and abortion was legal. I decided to have an abortion, because that seemed like the only option for me then. I told very few people that I was pregnant. A female friend of mine loaned me the money.

I was able to go to an established clinic in my town, where I was treated with kindness by a very compassionate doctor. Although I don’t remember having any discomfort from the abortion itself, I do remember that I cried afterwards in the recovery room.

Over the years, I’ve sometimes wondered what my life would be like now if I had the baby, as well as whether it would have been a boy or girl.

In 1987, I became the mother to my daughter, who is now 35 yrs old. She is the most precious part of my life, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to support her as a single mom, after her father & I divorced when she was 4. Even though I had a good paying job since she was born, I know that I would have had a very hard time supporting more than 1 child while she was growing up.

I’ve always felt that having the abortion was the best choice I could have made, and I have no regrets. I was lucky to have that option. I will always be pro-choice for women, because every woman deserves to be able to choose whether or not to bring a child into the world.