June 24, 2026 · Four Years After Dobbs
What kind of life did access to reproductive choices let you build?
235 Voices and Counting
You—or someone you love—has benefited from contraception, sex education, maternal care, assisted reproduction, miscarriage care or abortion. This isn't a privilege we ask permission for.
Our lives depend on this right. It's a right millions of us exercise every day—legal or not, restricted or not, named or not.
We are the majority. We're going on the record.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to:
Disconnect permanantly from a narcissistic man who made me pay him back the $200 I needed for the procedure to end that pregnancy. I moved out of my own house on a Sunday after giving him a letter that a copy was on file with the local sheriff’s department giving him 30 days to clear out, take everything he thought was his, or I’d park it all on the street. He moved. The house was in my name only. We weren’t married. And spoke to him only twice since then, 16 years ago.
I was suffering from mental illness and had been all my life. I got pregnant. It was a hard decision to make, and I waited until the last day to make it. That day I realized that I could barely take care of myself, let alone someone else. And going through a pregnancy was not an option I could live with. I have scoliosis and have had back pain every day of my life. Thanks to the right given to me, I chose to abort. My mom wasn’t being supportive at all, so no help there. She also suffered from mental illness. I don’t regret the decision. I had a lot of work to do to help myself get better.
It allowed me to finish my advanced education so I could support myself without getting married. It allowed me to survive the menacing male advancement years until my maturity formed, and I was able to stand my ground, thrive, succeed, and help others.
I was 15, mostly unparented and unsupervised. My family was troubled and occasionally violent. I lacked so much emotionally that I sought attention from older men, an attempt to fill the gaping holes of parental neglect and abandonment. He was in his 30s, and we had unprotected sex – legally labeled as statutory rape – in his bedroom. It was my mother who suggested that I might be pregnant. She had become pregnant at 17, dropped out of high school and was forced to marry my 20-year-old biological father in 1958. She understood deeply the kind of life I would have if I were forced to have a baby at 15. She drove me to a doctor who would perform a now-legal abortion. I have never regretted that decision and am thankful that I had the choice at the tender age of 15. Now 67, my life has been mine to plan and to live. I honored my reproductive freedom by pursuing a life filled with goals, public service, and a continued fight to support women’s right to control their lives.
Access to reproductive choices empowered my ability to make my own decisions about my body and my future. As a young woman, Planned Parenthood enabled access to affordable birth control. Later, as a working adult, my company sponsored health insurance continued that access without issue. These resources gave me the freedom to build a successful career, continue my education later in life, and balance it all with an amazing relationship with my husband of 30 years. Not having a choice, never occurred to me. And yet here we are. I am using my disappointment and anger to pivot once again. I am entering a doctoral program for management with a focus on transformational women in leadership. My goal is to join the movement by teaching, mentoring, and inspiring future leaders. Despite the organized pushback and regression of women’s rights all over the world, I remain confident that we must and can have the freedom to choose and I choose to change the rules.
The ability to pursue the life I wanted. Not to be tied down to some unwanted life dictated by others. Pursue life, sports, education, and well being. Freedom. Health. Strong. Independence. Happiness.
For years, I lived with more than 15 uterine fibroids that caused heavy bleeding, worsened my lifelong anemia, and left me worried about my fertility. As a Black woman who hopes to become a mother, I needed care that protected both my health and the future I envision. In April 2025, I underwent uterine fibroid embolization, a minimally invasive treatment that preserved my uterus. Since then, my periods have become lighter and pain-free. Access to reproductive healthcare gave me greater control over my body, my future, and when and how I build my family. My experience strengthened my commitment to protecting that freedom for others. I now serve as a Vote Ambassador for Reproductive Freedom for All and was elected president of the Virginia chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus, co-founded by Ms. magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem. I use my voice and leadership to ensure everyone can make deeply personal reproductive decisions and build their lives on their own terms.
Not to remain trapped in a toxic relationship I had entered because I did not believe I could succeed on my own. At 35, after never wanting children, I became pregnant unexpectedly and felt a powerful desire to keep my baby. But I had no job, no genuine friendships, little self-worth, addictions to cocaine, alcohol, and food, and a partner who did not want the child. Having an abortion broke my spirit, and it still hurts my heart. Yet that deep despair ultimately led me to sobriety and gave me the strength to transform my life. Today, I am a registered nurse, own my home, and have ten years of sobriety. Most importantly, I have self-respect and compassion for the struggling woman who knew she could not give birth. In my heart, I believe my baby would have been a girl named Caliana. I hope to meet her in heaven one day, hold her, and thank her for the sacrifice that allowed me to find myself.
My body…my choice!
Choices for what I want if I got pregnant: 1. Information and support if I choose to keep the baby 2. Information and support if I choose to give the baby up for adoption 3. Information and support if I choose abortion The common thread here is choice. Choice gives me and my daughters freedom. Freedom to live the life that we want without anything or anyone telling us how to live it. I have raised 2 smart and beautiful daughters who know their worth. They are both educated, fund their own lives and choose if they want to get married and have children one day. I run a fitness program for women to help them find strength through weight training, navigate midlife, and never give up on themselves. Longevity is our goal. As I get older, I learn more about myself and the kind of woman I want to be. I thank my mother and the women before me for helping us find the courage to live whatever life we choose!
I have always believed I have the right to make the same choice my mother made. My mother got pregnant with me later in life, in the early 1970’s, when being pregnant at 40 was more highly correlated with poorer birth outcomes. Apparently, her doctor advised that she should consider terminating the pregnancy, but she decided not to. This resulted in me fiercely believing, from the very earliest age, that absolutely nobody else had the right to make that decision for her but her. I know my mother well enough to know she’s always trying to do the right thing. If she decided to still have that baby, it’s because she thought it was the right thing to do, and the same holds if she had decided not to have that baby. Absolutely nobody else had a right to step in and make that decision for her, for her family. And I grew up believing at my core that because she had that right, so did I.
Unfortunately I was born in 1949 before women had the right to choose. My daughter and granddaughters have not had to experience what happened to me and my peers – backstreet abortions, single motherhood, forced marriage…
Helped me not make more unwanted children in an overpopulated world.
When I found out I was pregnant with my 3rd child, unplanned, but wanted, we were excited. I was beyond exhausted, and my husband sensed something was wrong. Tests confirmed hydrocephaly (water on the brain). Doctors advised termination, but I wanted him to go on his own terms. As my pregnancy progressed, further testing showed that remarkably, the hydrocephaly resolved, but that my baby had Down’s syndrome and other issues. They did not expect him to survive. We wanted biological & adopted children, boys & girls. My oldest boy already had some special needs. We agonized over what to do. The doctors strongly advised us to terminate. We wanted to wait & not force the decision. In NY, doctors could not perform abortions after 20 weeks. If we didn’t decide soon, we would soon have to travel out of state (and find someone to watch our 2 toddlers). We chose to terminate at 19 weeks 4 days. We attended the Heartbreaking Choices support group. We later adopted 2 sisters from Ukraine.
Be able to enjoy sex while pursuing my education and now my career without feeling the weight of a possible pregnancy or sexual health risks. I was given the choice to learn how to protect my body while enjoying and empowering the magic of it. I have the freedom to work and create my own wealth and choose what I use my earned resources on, and when I WANT that to include a child. When women have freedom to make independent choices, we are all empowered to pursue careers and opportunities that, by nature, bring up other women too. And women are incredible leaders! Freedom puts us in a position to lead and spread positive, equal power.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to prevent my life from being ruined when it simply wasn’t the right time to have children. Even though it was a conscious choice, the abortion process was painful due to everything surrounding it: the judgment, the shame from others, and the heavy taboo that hides a lawful right beneath a layer of hypocrisy. This social pressure tears you apart psychologically. Yet, these decisions were far from selfish. If you feel it is not the right moment, bringing a child into the world when you cannot give them the love and attention they deserve is what is truly selfish. Selfishness is the exact opposite of what I did. This freedom allowed me to make a responsible choice for my future and for a potential life.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to feel safe in a world and in a country where all of that is heavily discouraged, and in some cases prevented. As women, we know our worth can be a matter of life and death. And feeling the pressure of knowing that there is even a choice between the two is definitely a unique burden we carry. When it feels that all/what we have to keep us safe (our bodies) is the very thing under threat and abuse, all hope can seem lost. It is because of fights for rights like reproductive care and our resilience as women that we can continue to give and appreciate life for the beauty that it is and can be.
Build a family with a good, stable, and loving partner, a family that is sturdy enough to support two gorgeous children, a family that is loving enough to be a shelter for all of us. Because I had access to reproductive choices, I was able to wait to have children until I could heal some of my own trauma, and now, my daughters can grow up without the burden of my inherited pain. Because I had access to reproductive choices, they are freer than any other woman (that we know of) in their bloodline.
As a single mother, the abortion I had allowed me to concentrate on, care for and raise the autistic child I already had. I quit drinking, went back to school and got a better job. He was able to participate in sports and other extra curriculars.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to be intentional about my life and to learn what my true intentions are at every stage of life. I was put on birth control when I was 13 because my bleeding was so heavy and painful. I’ve had two abortions, at 16 & 22. At 22, I was strung out on methamphetamine and alcohol and watched my dad die from cirrhosis and meth. I would spend the next 10 years as an alcoholic, being clean off of meth after 2.5 years. I continued to watch my mom & other loved ones struggle with addiction. Ten years after I lost my dad, I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer after she had gotten off of meth three years before. Since then, I went to college for the third time; this time I succeeded by earning a master’s degree in social work at the age of 40! I now work as a clinical therapist for the VA, helping Veterans. I moved from Colorado to California and have built a peaceful life for myself. I’m single, with no kids, supporting myself. I’m a natural-born feminist, resisting since birth.
In my senior year of college, about a month before I was leaving for an eight week trip to study and work at an archaeological dig in Greece, I found out I was pregnant. I had used protection. I had no intention of having a baby. My life and career in academia was just getting started. My boyfriend at the time and I had already decided to go our separate ways, but he kindly helped pay for the procedure. I didn’t tell a soul. I didn’t have time to talk about it. Two weeks after the abortion I left for Greece. It wasn’t easy dealing with the bleeding, the discomfort I endured post-procedure in the field, with no clean bathrooms (no bathrooms at all) and no privacy, but I never looked back. On my own terms, in my own time, I married and have two amazing children and grandchildren. I just retired after 40 years of teaching college. I can’t imagine what I would have done if abortion had been illegal for me in 1980. I will continue to fight for women’s right to decide our fate.
My husband and I had three children in quick succession. He worked two jobs so I could stay home with the babies. I am very grateful to him for doing that as I think it is so important. I was able to return to a teaching position when the youngest was in Kindergarten. Had we had more children, our lives would have been much more difficult for all of us.
I would have the life I built without access to birth control including abortion. From an early age my mother instilled the importance of education so that I had the ability to support myself and choose whatever direction I wanted. Whenever I envisioned my future, it never included children – and that’s ok. I’ve been happily married for 30 years, have a great career, supporty family and friends, and give back to my community.
Reproductive rights game me control. Reproductive rights gave “me” life.
I am a nurse today because, at 19, I had the freedom to choose the life I wanted. I was in an abusive relationship and needed a medication abortion to get out and start over. My abortion became complicated. For nearly a week, I had severe pain and bleeding. I called Planned Parenthood’s on-call nurse, who told me it was not normal and to go to the ER. The ER dismissed me without examining or treating me, telling me this was what was supposed to happen. A nurse even asked, “Have you ever heard of using a condom?” I called Planned Parenthood again and was told to come in when they opened. They immediately took me back, found retained tissue on an ultrasound, and completed the abortion. A nurse held my hand while I was scared. I felt immediate relief. Planned Parenthood saved my life. Those nurses inspired me to become a nurse. I am 37 now, have an IUD, and still control my reproductive choices and future. I am childfree by choice, and that freedom allowed me to build a life of my own.
Live my life.
2 grown kids from divorced parents who are grown now – 1 man and 1 woman
The life I’ve built is thanks to an IUD that allowed me to concentrate on my life instead of taking care of kids.
Had a life, enjoyed it thanks to legal abortion and reproductive health care. Was able to develop a career and a late family on my timing because of the legal changes in my lifetime with Roe v Wade. Worked with many women who benefits and men who, by association, benefitted as well.
With birth control has given me the freedom to have sex as much as I want without the fear of being knocked up. However, that being said.. birth control is not a complete fix. I want the freedom, the right to have a hysterectomy on my terms and not my husbands permission. I dont want to be told “but what if you change your mind later?” I won’t. I have no urge to have children of my own, even as a child. Why can we as women not have the right to our own bodies? Why can we not have an abortion, a hysterectomy? Why do men have to stick their noses in business that does not concern them? Bring me back my freedom!!
Friends have experienced miscarriages. Abortions. I’ve had sex ed. I grew up with two sisters. I thought I understood this stuff. But it took watching my wife unable to walk for three weeks after giving birth, while already carrying deep anxiety about breastfeeding, to show me the enormous gap between knowing these issues exist and understanding what women actually go through. And how much more I needed to listen, learn and show up. I’ve been fortunate in my life for a lot of reasons. And I want to spend more of it showing up as an advocate for the millions of people trying to build theirs with rights that should be basic.
Growing up in the ’80s—where boys were studs and girls were the opposite, where asking “why is birth control always a woman’s job?” was frowned upon by the sex-ed teachers—access to Planned Parenthood/the local health clinic let me claim my sexuality on my own terms, even if it had to stay relatively private. Learning how to track ovulation, choosing birth control, getting emergency contraception: these weren’t theoritical abstractions, they were real experiences that made me smarter and more responsible about my body, my health, and the men I let into my life. That freedom meant I got to figure out who was worthy of my intimacy instead of the other way around. It kept me from becoming a teenage mother and allowed me to develop concepts of a more expansive world during my formative early adult years. Reproductive choice wasn’t just about sex—it was truly freedom, and it let me pursue my own happiness, my personal intellect, and the adventurous life I’ve been priviledged to live.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to pursue a career as a teacher, journalist and psychotherapist. I was also able to travel internationally and take my daughter to Costa Rica for almost a year. I was able to give birth to my wonderful, kind, compassionate daughter at 34 when I was ready and so was my loving husband. My life would have been much harder without these choices. We need to fight to keep them available to all women!
Access to reproductive care, education, and choice gave me the freedom to know and trust my body, choose motherhood on my own terms, and build a life rooted in bodily autonomy and reproductive justice. Born in North Carolina in 1967 to Black parents raised in the Jim Crow South, I learned early that knowledge could be protection. After my first period, a nurse practitioner who was my mother’s friend took time to explain my changing body. When I became sexually active in high school, my mother, a registered nurse, made sure I had access to contraception. Her care taught me that my body was mine, without shame. Contraception allowed me to choose motherhood at 25 and again at 41. Now, at 59, I support Black people entering menopause through many pathways and gender identities. Reproductive freedom is personal and political. It is the right to be informed, cared for, protected, and free in our bodies at every age.
Become an academic and write two books on the intersection of women’s work and fertility, and how birth control has transformed economies and societies globally, for the better! And why we’re seeing backlash from the forces of yesteryear. The new one is just out: The Real Domestic Product: How Birth Control Built Equality (and Why the Future of the Economy and the Planet Depends on It) – MIT Press, 8.2026. You can read the introduction for free on the Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262051680/?bestFormat=true&k=the%20real%20domestic%20product&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-v2_k0_1_17_de&crid=18LH4CT4B59TU&sprefix=the%20real%20domestic
My daughter found that she was pregnant, but at about three months along she came by my work to ask if I could drive her to the hospital when I got off. She was experiencing extreme pain. I told her that kind of pain is not normal. “I’m going to leave work now to take you to the hospital emergency room.” When we got there, they took her in right away and did an ultrasound of her uterus. I remember saying, “I don’t see anything in there.” The doctor said no, it’s growing in her fallopian tube. That immediately struck terror in my heart. They rushed her into surgery and removed it. They said it was about to burst, but they caught it in time. Some years later, even with only one functional tube, she was able to conceive another beautiful son. We live in a blue state, and this was when abortion was legal. I hate to think of what the outcome would have been today, living in Texas or Florida. I do not doubt that I wouldn’t still have a daughter or grandson.
I had an abortion at age 17 – my Senior year of high school. I have zero regrets. As a mother (age 52) now of one beautiful boy age 20, the mistake I made as a child was solved by access to an abortion and enabled me to be the best version of myself to the soul I love the most in this world. I was ready for motherhood at age 32 and it’s my most proudest accomplishment. Motherhood should, whenever possible, be only when a woman is ready and willing.
Having an abortion at 24 allowed me to become a better mother at 40. My abortion story is ordinary, nothing to note except I HAD THE CHOICE. I knew deep down this was not going to be good for anyone. My gut was screaming it. I turned 40 a month into covid lockdown while living in NYC. I decided having a kid was probably now or never. I no longer really longed for a relationship or marriage, but I did long to become a mother. I took a big leap of faith and decide to become a single mom by choice and one IUI later I was pregnant. 3 months later I found out my daughter would have Down syndrome. I had to make another choice and I decided this was my baby and I was happy about it. Becoming a mother when I was ready simply makes me a better mother. I am more patient and understanding. I appreciate and am grateful to be this little girl’s mama. I would not have been able to be the mother I am now at 24, and the person I am now will shape my girl to be the best she can be.
Become an extraordinary mother to my 6-year-old son. We became pregnant after our son turned 12 months old and spent hours debating the pros and cons of having a second child so soon. Ultimately, I decided my mental health would not sustain a safe pregnancy nor create a healthy environment for a newborn. I prioritized our family’s safety and well-being and had an abortion in Tennessee. I am incredibly thankful I was able to do that before Dobbs. Our family would not be as strong or happy today if we hadn’t been able to make that choice. Everyone deserves the autonomy to make the decisions that are best for themselves and their families.
Start over. My ex and I were drug addicts; young, scared, and barely able to take care of ourselves- let alone a baby. When I saw those positive lines pop up, I thought my life was over. My mental tempest raged in head…I couldn’t see any way out, so I went to my therapist. She laid out the 3 options. With my/our addiction, my ex and I chose termination. That very hard, emotional choice was nearly 17 years ago. I’m now a single mother to an incredibly sweet 10 yr old son who loves animals and super hero’s, & I’m a recovery coach with years of clean time, also I’m a board member for a non for profit that gives out bikes and clothing to those in recovery, and I mentor mothers coming out of jails, rehabs and prisons as well. I couldn’t have done any of this 17 yrs ago, addicted, broken, mentally stormy and alone… I wasn’t ready to be a mother, YET. I got my second chance at life and being a mom, and I am FOREVER GRATEFUL <3
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to have a birth plan — and to be able to walk away from a doctor who, at my very first appointment, tried to tell me when my baby would be due according to a C-section board of dates she had. When I refused, I went looking for another doctor. I asked her straight out: “How many natural births do you have on your list?” She said a few. But let me tell you this — women sit right there where you are and beg, “Please, doc, no pain.” Me? I’m a mother of four children, all natural births. So I said, “Shake my hand. Let’s do this.”
April 5,1992 was the day that I marched on Washington to support our right to abortion. I was 21 and it opened my eyes to our freedom of choice. With these freedoms I was able to choose when I had my three beautiful children. My daughters are now fighting for these rights that we had for so long.
Mine is the oldest story in the book: When I was 28 years old, birth control failed. I never wanted kids, so “I’m getting an abortion” was the quickest decision in the world. It allowed me to cleanly separate from an abusive partner, pursue a master’s degree, date & travel freely, even live in Japan for 4 years. But in the early-2000s — still the “safe, legal, and rare” era — abortion was heavily stigmatized, and I only shared it with my partner and my best friend at the time. Younger generations speaking out encouraged me to finally share my story in my late 40s. This is what stigma does — it isolates us, and I never wanted that for another woman or girl. So I decided to become an outspoken advocate for reproductive access. After Roe fell, I became even more active… I now have a growing online platform called, “The Abortionfluencer” and write about topics not found in mainstream news. The lesson? If someone else isn’t doing it, don’t wait — DIY, baby. Follow your dreams! <3
Access to reproductive choice gave me the freedom to pursue public health work grounded in community care rather than survival. Without the ability to decide if and when to have children, I couldn’t have built the infrastructure I am passionate about, organizing networks, newsletters, mutual aid systems, and relationships with folks across the South doing this work. Reproductive freedom is the reason I can receive reproductive health care and is the bedrock that let me show up for others, go after my career goals, and build something that lasts.
What hasn’t it given me the ability to do? Reproductive choices have meant I’ve been able to pursue higher education, work across a number of fields, pursue my ambitions, have the time to think and write and engage in activism, travel, support my family, be a better partner and mother, make money, save money, plan for the future, maintain my health, have a richer, more fulfilling life. Every woman in my family before my generation, didn’t have reproductive choices. The differences in what they were able to do with their lives and where I have been able to do or stark.
My work in abortion rights has given me the freedom to build a life grounded in empathy. Spending years listening to women describe pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, contraception and the deeply personal decisions surrounding whether and when to have children has made me a better man. It taught me that reproductive freedom is not an abstract political issue; it is about trusting people with the most intimate decisions of their lives. That work has changed how I think about my own future, too. If I someday have conversations with a partner about conceiving children and building a family, I want her to know there is nothing she could be afraid to tell me—about her body, her fears, her hopes, a pregnancy or a decision she needs to make. I would want her to feel heard rather than judged and supported rather than pressured. Reproductive freedom helped me build the kind of man I want to be: one who listens, empathizes and understands that loving someone also means respecting her autonomy.
In my 20s, I had two abortions. Neither decision was easy, but both were mine to make. I think often about the person I’d have been forced to become instead — not a worse person, necessarily, but not me. A life chosen under compulsion isn’t the same life, even if it looks similar from the outside. Because I had that choice, I got to become a mother on my own terms in my 30s, to three kids I was actually ready for. They’re wonderful, and being their mom became my career. That’s not a privilege. That’s what it means to author your own life instead of having it decided for you.
I got pregnant when I was a law student (about 40 years ago), and I wasn’t in a committed relationship with the man who impregnated me. I was in not in a place in my life where I was ready for motherhood. I had an abortion. I finished law school and went on to have a successful law career, and eventually I met a married a wonderful man and we have 2 wonderful children. Birth control and abortion care enabled me to decide when motherhood was the right choice for me. It was not an easy choice, but it was the right choice for me. I made sure to impress upon my daughter and my son the importance of birth control and having the right to make the most important decisions about your body and your life by yourself. I am horrified that my daughter had less rights over her own body than I did 40 years ago.
choose to keep my daughter as an unwed mother in 1975 while attending college and then a year later end a pregnancy (on the pill the first time, IUD second time), so that I could finish college and give my daughter the time and energy she deserved.
Every human deserves the right to bodily autonomy. Agency, ownership, and dignity with their own body. I first learned that lesson thru reproductive choice, but it expands well beyond. It is an empowering thought. A level of both mental and bodily freedom. And when that is denied, we are also denying rights and choice on a multitude of levels. Without access to reproductive choice, women are deeply disempowered, which perhaps is the point.
I was able to leave a terrible college relationship, work on a presidential campaign, establish a career in public health, serve on municipal commissions, travel to 6 new countries, finish a degree, apply to graduate school, and more. Reproductive freedom is essential to women’s liberation and status as full citizens.
Live and live on my own terms!
To support myself as a single, child free adult. I knew I could get Healthcare to maintain that status. Birth control, or abortion if that failed. It is infuriating that the current Administration is taking us backwards.
Relax about the fear of pregnancy. In the 50’s, my roommate got pregnant and did not wish to marry the father. Her parents tried to force her into the Florence Crittendon Home. At 19, she resisted and managed her pregnancy and the adoption of the baby on her own. Around 1970, before Roe, I was living in New York, where abortion was legal. Another pregnant friend came from Colorado to stay with me for a few days to get an abortion. BTW, in the 1950’s it was illegal for a doctor to provide contraception to an unmarried woman. We all shared a wedding ring to get around that prohibition. Lack of access to safe, affordable abortion and even contraception screwed up the lives of many young women I knew.
I was able to contribute to my community by working and volunteering in addition to raising a family.
Allowed us to plan our work and family as we chose to as we were newly wed although we had dated for two years before marrying.
Our lives depend on this right.
Tell us what you built.
Published in Ms. · Be Part of the Record