In March of 1988 I had an abortion, because I was a unwed seventeen year old girl who was pregnant from a abusive young man that I needed to get away from.

I remember waiting for hours at the Planned Parenthood clinic that I went to which was at a nice community, not at an inner-city, which was surprising to me.  As I waited, I looked around at the other women waiting to do the same thing I was about to do, there were young women and older women, which was a shock to me because I thought only young unwed women had abortions. 

When it was finally my turn, I was strapped to this bed and was put to sleep immediately.  No conversation, no explanation of what was going to happen to me, not a word. When I woke up, I was trying to get the attention of the nurses that were about four feet away from me that were clearly ignoring me.  So I got up myself and got dressed, I remember feeling so groggy.  I was instructed to go out this one particular door.  It led me to the side of the building and outside. My cousin and boyfriend were at the bottom of the stairs. I felt so confused; I didn’t know to feel relieved or to feel sad. My cousin gave me a hug and at that moment I started to cry, but only for a moment.

This took place on a Saturday, on Monday I went back to school like nothing ever happened.  In September of 1988, I joined the Navy and left the abusive boyfriend behind. But then I became very promiscuous and started drinking a lot and never really dealt with what I did on March of 1988.  I continued this path until I was 25 years old and got married.

In 2009, my daughter who was 12 years old at the time decided to join our "Stand True" group at our church, which our pro-life group.  So the healing began, I had to deal with what I did all those years ago. And with the help of my great kids and friends from my parish I am slowly but surely forgiving myself for what I did March of 1988.