I was 25 when I got pregnant. My boyfriend and I had been using protection religiously, but clearly something had gone wrong. We hadn’t been together very long, and it had been a stressful time for me. There was a lot of turmoil in my family for various reasons, same with my boyfriend. I wasn’t ready then, and neither was he. I made the appointment and he took me to the next town over to have a surgical abortion. I went home a couple of hours later and was fine. I had some residual issues from my hormones readjusting, but I never regretted it.

We got married five years after that, and we will be celebrating our ten year anniversary soon. We still don’t have kids, it was just never a priority for us. We’re happy to travel and spoil our cat. A lot of these stories end with someone getting married and having children, which is great! Some of the few people who know about my abortion have asked if I feel bad that I “missed my chance”. I don’t- I’m happy with my life the way it is. My abortion isn’t a “missed chance”, it allowed me to have more opportunities.