"'You are 19 weeks & 2 days' the sonographer said. My mouth dropped & my heart sunk. I just gave birth to a sweet baby 7 months ago & my period never returned because I was breastfeeding & my husband & I were less than careful. 'Is it too late to have the procedure now?', were the first words I could mutter from my lips. 'We can still proceed with the procedure if that's what you want', the sonographer said. I apparently was just mere days within the cut off limit to have an

"After dating a string of buttheads; I was (and am) thrilled to find a guy who treats me as I deserve to be treated! We got married ~25 years ago. He was coming out of a bitter divorce, and I hadn't met him until his ex moved out. They have a kid together, and I took him and his kid as a package deal when I said my marriage vows. Prior to our marriage, we discussed pregnancy plans. We decided that we didn't want to get pregnant for at least a year after we were married. Frank

"I am 36 years old, and I have two children. I have a 16 year old daughter, and a 9 year old son. My children have two different dads who I am no longer with, and I have been seeing someone new for 2 years. When I found I was pregnant I was scared at first then excited. This pregnancy would make a total of 6 pregnancies in my lifetime. I had 2 births, 1 abortion years ago, a miscarriage, and an ectopic. The ectopic was 3 years ago and left me with one tube on my right side. I

"I would like to share my story because when I finally decided to have my abortion, I scoured the internet looking for stories similar to mine, but to no avail. I was 27. I already had 2 school aged children, but the thought of having a baby was very exciting. My situation was very unideal. I was married but my husband did not want children of his own (my children were from a previous marriage). So I strayed. I met the most amazing guy who fell in love with me and wanted chil

"I became pregnant when my two kids were 1 and 2. They were already a lot to handle and I couldn't imagine having a third one at the time. I lived in hellish state of despair and confusion, unsure what to do. After I had my abortion, I broke down in so many ways. The only way I can describe this experience is that my heart was pulled out of my body and a big part of me felt dead. I could barely breathe. I would cry constantly and out of nowhere. I still have debilitating depr

"On the 22nd May, 2019, I had a surgical abortion under general anesthetic. I was 17 weeks and 6 days pregnant. I’m 45, 46 in a couple of months. I have three teenage children who I have raised on my own. My partner of three years and myself were lackadaisical lately about contraception. I was having investigations for the menopause and I stupidly thought I was too old to get pregnant. I wasn’t. I felt as though I was too old, couldn’t afford another child emotionally, physic

Content warning: childhood sexual abuse, abusive relationship, rape “When I was 4-6 (not sure when) I was sexually abused. I repressed the memories until I was 14. When the memories came back my home life was also really bad and I (I always such a good kid) was lost. I dated a bit and then had my heart broken and I was left by all my friends. When I thought no one liked me, a guy found interest in me. I instantly devoted myself to him, the dumb kid I was. He got me into drugs

“It was 2009. I was 28. My ex-husband had moved out a few months prior. I had two kids already and I was barely able to support them. I didn't date due to residual issues with my ex and not feeling worthy, but also because I didn't want to end up in another situation where I was dependent on a man. One night I took my kids to my ex's apartment and he asked if I wanted to have a drink. One thing led to another... On the way home I thought I should get a Plan B the next day, bu

“Reading these stories helped me, so I wanted to share my experience too in the hopes that it will help other women. I'm 39, happily married with 2 beautiful children, ages 2 and 4. In my last pregnancy, I had a TIA (mini-stroke) when I was 8 months pregnant. I ended up ok, as did my son, but it was very scary, and as a result my doctor will not prescribe me birth control that includes estrogen since it could increase my chances of another stroke. My husband and I have used c

“I was 23 when I decided to have an abortion. I had a 6 year old at the time, who I had given birth to at the age of 16. I had spent almost 7 years working and struggling to build a life for the two of us. At 23, I finally had done that. I had a good job, a nice house, money and time to do the things we needed/wanted, and I had done it all by myself. I was single but had been dating someone on and off. One day I wasn't feeling right, I was exceptionally moody, uncomfortable,

“Today is Mother's Day, and yesterday I completed a medical abortion at home. I know, the irony is strong. But I already have a daughter who is almost two, and my husband and I knew that we weren't ready for another. We weren't trying to get pregnant again, I was on birth control and following the instructions explicitly. I was just unluckily an exception. So, when I got a positive test there was no question that this wasn't going to continue. I had an appointment scheduled l

“I found out I was pregnant last week. I have been having irregular periods and figured it's because I'm nearly 46! I really didn't think I could get pregnant and had skipped my period a few times this past year. I had been taking the combination birth control pill but had missed quite a few doses in the last month due to an irregular and stressful work schedule. When I started getting pregnancy symptoms, I couldn't believe it at first. I already have 3 kids, and I really was

“100 non-medical reasons: That's how I decided I would tell anyone apart from husband about choosing not to go forward with this pregnancy. There were actually only 24 reasons (so far). ‘Choosing not to go forward with this pregnancy’ - that's the flowery way to express it. ‘I chose to have an abortion’ is the politically charged, emotionally saturated and conversation-halting way to say it. I had just turned 42 when I failed to perform the vaginal film insertion procedure pe

“It happened yesterday. I'm 29 years old and already have a five-year-old son. Although my son’s father is in his life every other weekend, I’m a single mom. My son depends on me and his father pays the state MINIMUM in child support. I have a caring boyfriend of a little over a year, however, we broke up a few times through last year due to mostly my indecisiveness regarding commitment. He took the last break up pretty hard and went "back out " (we are both members of alcoho

“So today I had an abortion at 19 weeks. I’m saddened but at the same time I feel relief. I haven’t told anyone but the staff at the clinic about my abortion due to circumstances I will explain. I’m 25 going to be 26 in a few days. I have had 3 pregnancies; first one was a miscarriage, second, I have a beautiful daughter, third is this one, I had an abortion. We shall start in May of 2018, I found out my husband was cheating on me. At the time, our 9-month-old daughter was ge

“I decided to share my abortion story to help relieve the stress and worry for others going through the same thing. My husband and I stupidly had drunken unprotected sex one night. I decided to get the morning after pill even though I thought I was at a stage of my cycle where I was very unlikely to get pregnant. Fast forward two weeks and my period hadn't arrived so I took a test and found out I was pregnant. We have a four-month-old baby so another baby just isn't an option

“My name is Sade. I’m 29 and today at 11 weeks pregnant, I had my abortion. I had a surgical D & C procedure, with IV sedation. I went to Planned Parenthood in Columbus, Ohio. They were great! I was a scared, nervous, crying mess. They talked to me about how it would go, did my IV, and what do you know, I was up. The nurse gave me hug, told me I will be just fine and then the doctor came in and told me the same thing. Before getting my Fentanyl and anxiety drug in my IV, I st

“22 years old, mother of a 16-month-old wonderful little girl. I had recently separated from her father. I had a new boyfriend, wonderful relationship… and a positive pregnancy test. I was 14 weeks 5 days when I went through a two-step abortion procedure. I struggled with the decision from the moment I took the test. I love kids, I want more. But the timing is so not right—I’m just not ready. My mind raced every day and every night until finally, the decision was clear, and a

“I was 18 years old and a mom to my three-year-old little girl when I found out I was pregnant. I knew how different it was going to be from the moment I found out. I didn’t get the same feeling as when I found out I was pregnant the first time. With my oldest daughter, I was scared yet excited and loved my precious baby instantly. With this one I felt shame and disgust. I didn’t have feelings for the dad, and he was living a not so great lifestyle and I just remember sitting

Content warning: mentions of suicide “I had my first child in August 2017, with a man I’d been with for 5 years. I was 21 years old when we welcomed our daughter into this world. This new role as a mother changed me in so many ways. I forgave my fiancé for cheating on me my entire pregnancy and we got married 10 days after I’d given birth. My daughter was 9 months old when he left us for another woman. He moved out and I kept on decent terms with this man for the sake of my d