I had an abortion one week ago on April 8th. 5 days after my 28th birthday. With recent Covid-19 cases everything is changing. My husband had to sit outside in the car and wait for me to be brought outside to him. He got all his updates from me prior to taking Valium via text message. They gave me one last ultrasound, he wasn’t allowed to come in and see and I wasn’t allowed to take a single image home. Even if he wasn’t exposed to anyone, wore a mask, and gloves they had me alone and he was forbidden from coming in. I was unsure of my decision because I was alone in the room. I arrived at 12 and left at 3:30. I went outside one time before taking the medication so he could say goodbye and hold my hand one last time before this decision was made.
Originally we were trying to have a baby in December. In January I got pregnant. He owns his own business and is considered non essential and had to stop his jobs. He’s not making an income and we have 3 other children to look after. Yes, we have savings but I do not work as I’m a nursing student and you can only plan so far in advance. We both cried for weeks over this decision and the guilt we felt. We wanted this baby and now being so uncertain of our future and finances we made the logical decision to get an abortion and removed as much emotion as we could from the equation. Before this, I was able to get an early gender determination and found out it was a boy. We have 1 ultrasound picture at home of our little boy and will honor him however we can, each day, each year. We need to think about the people who are alone getting an abortion during this time. A stranger’s hand can only be so comforting compared to that of your significant other who is alone waiting for you to be walked out to the car, bleeding, loopy from the medication, and feel like they were in a totally different world as were you. I support abortion, I support our healthcare workers, I support my choice. Someone needs to know what it’s like today to get one and it’s hard and lonely, but a good decision we made together.
