My Nuvaring was from a faulty later-recalled batch–likely not refrigerated properly or containing the proper amount of hormones. When I went to my then-doctor for my abortion they sent me to a catholic hospital and they gave me an ultrasound and forced me to look at the fetus–then they prescribed me the wrong dosage of abortion pills and gave me the wrong instruction and said to return in a week. When my test was still positive a week later, I went straight to Planned Parenthood and they explained to me that the pressure to take on an unwanted pregnancy is very real and that I wasn’t the first time they had heard of this happening.
It was too late by that point to use pills (two weeks past the time it would be legal in Texas), and they had to give me a surgical abortion instead. It hurt and it made me kind of sick and I remember just crying the whole time–but when it was over I felt empowered. And the staff and doctors at PP were the absolute best. They were even able to insert a Paragard IUD at the same time I had the procedure.
I don’t feel guilt about the abortion really – even though I was raised to think of it as murder. It just – isn’t. It was healthcare they didn’t want to give me.
