Freedom

I was on the mini pill from the time I turned 18 until the time it failed when I was 21 and I got pregnant, despite taking it at the same time every day. I was a senior in an intense college program and my partner and I worked minimum wage jobs, having a baby would have derailed our lives and caused unimaginable misery for us and the child. Abortion was a no brainer and I didn’t feel bad at all, I refuse to feel bad. This was also in January of 2019, right before the pandemic. There was an issue with my unemployment and I had to survive off of no funds for 7 months while the bureaucratic mess got sorted out. It was one of the worst times of my life, but I’m thankful I got an abortion immediately before that happened or it would have been worse. I didn’t have enough money to care for myself, let alone a baby.

Soon after graduating during the pandemic, I landed a highly sought after position and I’m thriving in my career now, but I’m still poor. As is expected for young people starting their careers, I make just enough to not worry. If I was forced to uproot my life and have that baby, I know in my heart I’d never have gotten a job in my field and we’d spend our lives in poverty with no opportunities because we were too busy caring for a child, unprepared. Now, we can work towards having a family when we want to, after we have established ourselves. Conservatives want this for us. They want us to have no control over our lives and to be stuck in this cycle. It was never about the fetuses; it’s about destroying lives and progress and keeping people poor. Abortion is a blessing that allows people to have families when they want, not when ignorant people want them to. I’m grateful every day for Planned Parenthood and my local abortion providers, they are truly heroes.