My Pro-Choice Life: I just feel this is needed.

mypro-choicelife:

I track the tag abortion on here, of course, and going through it.. I constantly feel like I have to justify myself and my informed decision. I was in no way lied to or coerced into terminating my pregnancy.

I was in counseling before I got pregnant - my mother felt I needed someone to talk to. So when I found out I was pregnant, rather than tell my parents, I told my counselor. She never tried to make my decision for me. All she did was force me to think about the consequences of each decision, and decide for myself what to do.

I did seriously consider keeping it. My boyfriend and I spent days talking about it and how we could possibly pull it off. We even considered moving to his home country to live with some of his more well off family there! Which, let’s be honest, is a ridiculous notion at any age, never mind sixteen! But we legitimately looked at any and every available option - no matter how ridiculous it was.

We knew that neither of us would be able to live with it, with each other, if we gave our child up for adoption. I knew that if I went through with the pregnancy, I wouldn’t be able to say good-bye to my baby. He knew it, too. So it was figure out how to live and create a future with a little one, or abortion. I wasn’t ready, he wasn’t ready, and there was no possible way for us to create a decent future for our child, so I chose what I had to - abortion.

I researched. I looked into the different procedures and clinics I could go to. I asked my school nurses any questions I had. I also asked my counselor the same questions - it’s good to have more than one source and/or reference for information. I made an informed decision. I knew what I was doing and what I was getting into.

You may say I “killed my child” or that I was “ignorant of the innocent life I took”, but I did not and I was not. What I terminated was a fetus, one that was barely developed in any way. It was nothing more than a cluster of cells. I did not “end an innocent life”. It was not yet a life. It may have been, but I chose not to destroy my body, my health, or my life for a child I could not take care of. I was well aware of what my decision meant, and I don’t regret it whatsoever.