The first time I had an abortion I was 19 and in my second year at a British university. My boyfriend and I had been together a year but we both knew it was a casual thing: he was a lot older than me and said he never wanted kids. We went on a mini-break but ran out of condoms on the last night. I figured I could get the morning-after pill the next day, which I did. But it didn’t work, and I found …

I got pregnant just before New Years’ 2000. Every year is a reminder of how old my first child would have been. I loved the father and his family dearly and had known them for years, but he was young and not ready/interested in committing to me so he skipped town and I had no way to reach him (this was before everybody had cell phones) Occasionally, he’d call me out of the blue and try and convince me to have an abortion. Meanwhile, my …

My story is long. I could tell you all the facts, the “supposed” reasons why it was logical to go through with the abortion. My age and circumstance in the end will not matter. I can say my fear and confusion and pressure from others was the same felt as most of us before we decided to have the abortion. What I will say is that I cannot go a day ( really no more than a couple hours) without feeling the pain in my …