As a mother of two I knew that I loved children – and didn’t want anymore. Yes, we could afford a 3rd child and we were experienced enough to know we could handle #3. But I was over forty and simply did not want to have another child. Period.

I’d always wanted two kids, a boy and a girl, and I had that. Our family was complete. Having another child would have forced me to stop breast-feeding #2 sooner than I would have liked. It would have precluded all of the amazing travel and experiences that we’ve had with two kids who don’t have a younger sibling (s/he would just be turning two by now). It would have changed our family dynamics and added challenges that we didn’t want.

MY body. MY choice.

My husband felt the same way. He went with me to the Planned Parenthood Clinic and waited in the reception area. The nurse showed me the sonogram. Having seen the same images for my children, I knew there was life there, potential for another human being. And that new human didn’t have a place in our family.

I have never regretted my decision. I look at my children and know I made the right choice for my family and myself. And I trust the hearts and minds of the millions of women who have made the same choice millions of times before me, even in the decades and centuries before abortion was safe and legal.

OUR bodies. OUR choices. Period

I really wish I needed it. I don’t and not because I am past childbearing age either (damn it).

This says it all. I don’t understand why people don’t get it. I’m pro-choice for the simple fact people don’t have a right to make that decision for me as I don’t have the right to make it for them, but the answer for non-rape abortions is education and support.

Thank you for sharing RG. Thank you.

Education and compassion, I like it…

~TFP

I think it was only a month later that I found a girl from my home room crying at the train station. When I asked her what was wrong she told me she had just had her third abortion. She was only 14yo and as a 16yo I was floored. She explained her story and I put three people at fault.
The first was her mother who taught her that to be in a relationship with a man was to have sex with him and then failed to take her daughter to the doctors for contraception despite knowing she was to young to procure it herself.
The second was her boyfriend who refused to wear condoms. The third was herself, for not caring enough about herself to say no to her boyfriend when he refused to care what his actions would do to her.
It resulted in a big talk about relationships, sex, and taking care of herself. I basically told her that if her boyfriend loved her he would take care of her. That he was so selfish after the first abortion to still refuse to wear condoms was a clear indication he didn’t care for her. That she needed to care for her own well being and ensure that if she was going to have sex she had taken all the steps to protect herself, not only from another unwanted pregnancy but also from STI’s.
A few days later she came up to me at school, gave me a huge hug and thanked me for missing my train home to be there for her. I don’t know what happened to the boyfriend, I don’t really care. All I cared about that day was that I was 16 giving a 14 year old a talk that her mother should have done from the start. That I was a high school student explaining to a fellow student what our teachers, doctors, parents, community elders should have been explaining to all of us.
Ok that turned into a bit of a rant. Sorry RG. But thank you again for sharing your personal story and opinion. You got it right yet again.

I am ferociously pro-choice and pathetically inarticulate about it. It’s all well and good to score a point (fun fun) in an argument but far more important to sway someone to consider another point-of-view. I normally find myself foaming at the mouth and uttering obscenities. Not so useful in the swaying department.

I think I will commit the last few paragraphs to memory and use them when I’m engaging someone about this topic – something we all seem to be doing more frequently. I love your challenge/call to action to those opposed to abortion. So much less in-your-face aggressive then I am and SO much more effective.