This is a story about a work space that was not a safe place, and I was judged before I ever made an appointment.
Okay, it was in 2011, as a 26 year old I had just finally got a job that could take me somewhere, and a partner I was just getting to know in a romantic way after being friends for a decade. For a full week I felt sick, and decided to take a test, and sure enough it was positive. My birth control failed, and I was scared because I knew this was not the time, and in reality I never thought I would have kids. I had to request days off for my appointment, and while a few co-workers had found out, just because I was always sick, started to pressure me into having it. Luckily I am strong enough to not have let them change my mind, and I made the appointment. When I went to the clinic, I had to pay $400, that was my whole month check to set the appointment, told my boss about my up coming appointment (but not what it was for) and the day I went, I was charged an extra $100 because of being over weight, so not only am I pouring all my money for the month on this, but the fact another $100 because of my weight. Now the procedure was simple, I wasn’t given anything to be put under, and thought I would be able to go back to work that day, but I couldn’t, so I called off. It was done.
Now this is where the hardest part started, going back to work the next day I felt so alone, and so hated. It was against a lot of people’s belief (where I worked people were very religious) that they started to single me out, and make my work a living hell. I was in charge of some servers, and the morning cook, but that came to a crashing stop. My station would be a mess and my prep work taken, the others would stand in a huddle and talk how people who abort will burn, and that they would never associate with someone who had gone through. This went on for a month, until I was so broken, so hated that I didn’t even want to go to work. In this time I was moving, and had to call off one day that my boss would not answer his phone, so I was marked as a no call no show, and ended up being fired.
I took my experience and now I fight for the right for a woman to be able to choose (I always have). That this stigma of abortions are so very dangerous, that I think some people on the other side don’t see that. I found pages and groups of people online that I could talk to and it helped, but we need more. We need people to know this isn’t the end, that just because you choose to have an abortion you aren’t marked for the rest of your life, and everybody for all kinds of society, there are women who have had one. And I want to let those women know they are not alone. You are not bad goods, you are a human, and deserve to be treated like any other. We need to stop government from closing clinics and to tell our representatives.
