June 24, 2026 · Four Years After Dobbs
What kind of life did access to reproductive choices let you build?
186 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:
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.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to learn, work, explore, travel, enter and leave relationships, get to know myself, and be intentional about the life I live.
I was able take the morning-after pill after an assault; to take birth control and get an abortion when I didn’t want to be pregnant; and to get pregnant when it was the right time for me. This access meant I have been in control of my destiny, and have had the education, career, family and community I’ve dreamed of. Without this access, none of it would have been possible. EVERYONE deserves that possibility.
I live in Hungary, where the state financially encourages childbirth. My wife and I already had a naturally conceived child when we took a state-backed loan tied to having another. Then, the illness made it virtually impossible for another child. Now we may face a 2–3 million HUF penalty and a much more expensive loan. We wanted this child. We did not choose infertility. I am autistic, and this also raises a question of access: reproductive care is not truly accessible if disabled and autistic people are not adequately supported. A state cannot say “have children” and then “if you cannot, pay.” Illness is not a broken promise. Infertility should not become debt. We are seeking reproductive, disability, and human rights advocates who might help us challenge this.
I had the freedom to dream. As a woman with endometriosis, access to reproductive healthcare liberated me from excruciating pain. Having choice ensured I could access essential care I needed, while knowing that if I needed abortion care, I could access it too.
Finish college, go to graduate school, and build the most incredible career in the field that I still love. If I had not taken this path, I would never have met my husband or, after many reproductive challenges, had my beautiful daughter, who brings me great joy every day. Choice is paramount! Access to women’s healthcare is imperative!
Because I had access to effective birth control I was able to space my pregnancies to the benefit of our entire family. Access to effective birth control allowed me to work a mid-level management job for decades, contributing to our family’s financial stability while my husband launched his own business. Without access to effective birth control my life would be considerably less, both during my reproductive years and now.
After one missed miscarriage after another, I had already experienced expectant management and medication with previous losses. This time, my midwife helped me make an informed decision to have a D&C. A decision that honored both my physical and mental health. I simply couldn’t go through passing the tissue again.
Access to birth control options gave me and my husband the ability to wait to start a family when felt we were ready. And when I miscarried two days before Christmas with a corneal ectopic pregnancy that in the end managed to pass without surgery, access to abortion care and other reproductive healthcare saved my life and future fertility. This happened shortly before Roe v. Wade was overturned and when I became pregnant again I lost SO much sleep over the fact that the same drugs and healthcare options I had received became heavily restricted or criminalized. I am now the mother to a beautiful three year old, am pregnant with our second child, and am still thinking of the what-ifs.
I got pregnant at 24 and had my first child at 25. I had only been dating my now-husband for six months, and I was terrified. I didn’t know if I was ready to be a mom. I didn’t even know if I wanted kids. But what I did know was that I had a choice. I knew that if I decided I wasn’t ready to continue my pregnancy, I could access an abortion. I didn’t have to worry about whether my doctor could legally help me or whether either of us could face consequences for a decision about my own body. I had the freedom to figure out what I wanted. Ultimately, I chose to become a mom. But the important part is that I got to choose. Now I think about my daughter and the decisions she may one day make about pregnancy, motherhood, or whether she wants children at all. Reproductive freedom is about having control over when, whether, and how you become a parent and being able to make decisions about your own body and future. I had that freedom at 24 years old. My daughter deserves to have it too.
To live and love on my own terms when I was ready to manage both. Not to be trapped in my small central Canadian town because he was stronger than me in 1977.
Parent with my whole heart and build a beautiful queer family. Access to birth control let me avoid a pregnancy when I was still closeted and the freedom to come out as queer. Then, when I was ready, assisted reproduction gave me the freedom to build a family with my loving partner. Our son is now two and the joy of our lives. It is never lost on me that parenting when and only when I was ready is a privilege that I want every parent to have. But, it was a privilege that I had to fight for– there are so many barriers to queer family building. I want to live in a world where everyone has the resources and support to build their lives on their own terms.
Access to reproductive health choices allowed me to build a career and a family on my own timeline, instead of having that timeline chosen for me. I spent years on birth control while finishing my education and building a decade of clinical experience in postpartum, NICU, pediatric, and pediatric emergency nursing — work I couldn’t have done if motherhood had come first. When my partner and I decided to start our family, that decision was ours to make, on our schedule. That same freedom let me build something beyond the bedside. As an RN in women’s and children’s health, I now advocate for and educate girls and women of all ages on fertility, family planning, pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond — reaching hundreds of thousands with the evidence-based information I wish every patient had before she needed it in a crisis. My freedom to choose didn’t just shape my own life — it gave me the freedom to spend my career and my platform helping other women shape theirs.
I am a single, 32 year old woman who has built an amazing life in Vermont. With reproductive freedom, I have been able to choose to live my life on my own terms. I travel, go see concerts, hang out with friends, and date on my terms. It is truly amazing what life can be when we are given the choice to make it our own.
The access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to: Start realizing I had to take the choices I was making very seriously and take responsibility for my own life. Nobody could make it for me. The abortion I had (before Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal) led us to Juarez, NM in’68, where my boyfriend and I were able to obtain one (not in San Francisco at the time !). We spent a lot of money and time. I’ve never regretted it and today have two amazing daughters (43 and 40) and a delightful feminist granddaughter. We all know how important reproductive choices ARE. I thank the people involved in this just about every day. Sometimes I think not enough people (certainly women) understand how important it is to choose to have an abortion if it is necessary. It’s a Choice.
At 19, I became a mother and learned almost immediately that pregnancy, motherhood and medicine are far more complicated than any political talking point. My daughter, Kaydance, was born with a severe congenital heart defect. For six and a half weeks, I watched her fight for her life while I sat with doctors making impossible, deeply personal medical decisions for a child I desperately wanted to save. Then I left the hospital without her. That experience shaped everything I believe about reproductive freedom. I know what it means to desperately want your baby, and I know how horrifying it would have been to have the law dictate our medical options. Reproductive choice gave me the freedom to grieve, access contraception and maternal care, and decide when I was ready to become a mother again, and again, and again. It gave me the freedom to build the family and life I have today. I was trusted with those decisions at 19, every person deserves that same trust, including my daughters.
I was able to escape the inner city, and raise my 3 kids in a nice neighborhood where they wouldn’t experience the traumas I did. I went back to school, built a career and protected my peace. My mental, physical, financial health couldn’t handle any other addition. My multiple abortions saved my life.
Access to reproductive choices allowed me to move out of a place that was making me incredibly sick. It gave me the freedom to live 100% myself and meet others who are on that same journey.
Reproductive freedom gave me peace with my body. As a trans person, the ability to choose what to do with my body has been vital to my happiness and well-being. Now I’m happier and more fulfilled than I was ten years ago and have been able to connect with people in a way that’s authentic and joyous.
My mother had her first child at age 19 after becoming pregnant on accident. My entire life she begged be not to follow in her footsteps and prioritize myself instead. Having access to birth control has given me the freedom to go to college, build a career, and prioritize my own life and happiness first and foremost. Many of our mothers were not afforded the same privilege and I am eternally grateful for the freedom and autonomy that reproductive care has granted me. -Mayor Haley
I was able to make an informed decision about how to handle my silent miscarriage with choices presented by a midwife who only cared about helping me move through a devastating loss without shame.
As a married woman in her mid-thirties who was desperate to have children, I never thought I would have not one but two abortions for fetal abnormalities, including a reduction of a twin pregnancy which was heartbreaking to me but which gave me my beautiful son. I now have a 10-year-old and 12-year-old, am divorced, and have never looked back.
I always knew I wanted children. I was also a feminist from the beginning even if I didn’t know it in my teens. These two things are not opposed. I did all the so called right things. I was “responsible” and used birth control. I sought a better life than I grew up with by being the first person in my family to go to college. Fast forward 8 years and I was working two jobs and trying to get a job in my field. My boyfriend, later husband, and I were living in a one bedroom apartment. He was midway to finishing his degree. I knew exactly the moment when the birth control failed. I longed to be a mother but not like this. No matter how I many times I played it out, the only way I was going to have the kind of life my children deserved was to not have this one. My husband and I kept on our paths and when we were stable we married and had a son and a daughter. They are both thriving young adults heading into their futures well equipped for the world. I regret nothing and I feel no shame.
I could leave an abusive partner and decide to create the family I want on my timeline without depending on someone else. I can decide to raise a child in a home that is physically and emotionally safe. My child will not live with a parent who threatens violence and will not be afraid of the people who are supposed to protect and love them. My grandmother and great aunt didn’t have that choice.
I chose not to have children, but instead to travel to 79 countries and to publish two books of inspiring quotations. I’m happy to enjoy other people’s children!
Freedom to be unfertile. Less feminine, less in control of my husband, family life – but more in control of corporate organizations and system <3 It also gave me a lot of freedom to spend on pharmaceutics making me more dependend on that system aswell!
I’m the oldest daughter of a teenage mother. The cycle of unplanned pregnancies trapping women in abusive relationships goes back at least 3 generations. Reproductive choice gave me the freedom to break that cycle and build a successful career.
Birth control gave me the ability to be free from embarrassingly heavy periods that would soak all the way through my pants and make a huge mess. Access to birth control removes a serious stressor from sex – letting me focus on more important things like what I want, if I feel safe with my partner, and what feels good. When I was worried about potentially getting pregnant after sex, I could get Plan B to ensure I could continue completing my graduate degrees. Birth control meant that, when I realized my long-term partnership was no longer working, we could part ways without being tied together for life by a child (the cat was hard enough to sort out). Both of our lives are healthier and freer now. Beyond this, the pill and birth control freed many of my friends from severe period pain that prevented them from going to class/work (in addition to making life miserable). I want my friends, daughters, and all women to have these same blessings
contraception used every encounter enabled me to avoid pregnancy and thus avoid need for abortion. (I absolutely would have aborted. coat-hanger or grovel to my affluent parents who had many MD friends). enabled me to complete university undergrad years, grad school, law school. enabled me to live my life child-free and single. “better dead than bred” and “better dead than bred”. over 40 years of doing dog rescue and educating others about dogs on my web-site http://dcn.org/~pamgreen I am lifelong feminist and pro-choice.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to have two healthy children when my husband and I wanted them. I was on birth control for my teens and twenties because I knew I wasn’t ready to be a mom. Then, when my husband and I decided to start a family, we were ready. And because of access to reproductive choices, I was able to receive the proper medical care–a d&c–when I had a missed miscarriage. Later, I was able to take miso & mife for a blighted ovum. And in between, we had two healthy, amazing kids I am grateful for every day.
My reproductive choices allowed me to have children when my partner and I wanted them. These two pregnancies were joyous, followed by raising two wonderful children. I feel lucky to have the choice and lucky to work with physicians who were attuned to my needs. Birth control pills were new and not yet well understood. When I started to have some side effects, the doctor and I worked together to find a better solution for me. Again after my first child was delivered in an emergency C-section, I was able to work with my doctors to try a vaginal birth for the second. Vaginal birth was successful for my second child. Again this was because I had choices and physicians who worked with me. When I entered menopause my doctor spent a significant amount of time with me on the advantages of estrogen therapy. I decided to use it and did so for five years. It was great.–no regrets. The reproductive choices I freely made allowed me to live the life I wanted. No question about it.
Escape the Kansas farm life my mother led and have a great career as well as two wonderful children.
Finish my education, start a career, live independently and self-supporting and enjoy my life until I was ready at age 30 for a committed relationship and to start a family. Thank you PP
Build myself into the woman I am today, who has fulfilled career AND family goals by making reproductive choices as I matured and wove family with career instead having babies before I was ready, whereas a generation or two back, women were often trapped by unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
I grew up very Christian and was a virgin until my mid-twenties. I only started the pill once becoming sexually active with my fiancé. By then, I was in my master’s program with a goal of working in public service that makes a difference. I was able to delay having kids for years until I’d graduated and settled into my career. I remember the exact day I came home from work, sat down to watch TV, and thought, “Okay, I have space for more in my life.” We started trying, and I got pregnant within a couple of months. Our oldest daughter is so very loved and supported with a two-parent income household. We travel. We support her hobbies. We prioritize her. Birth control helped me delay a few more years again. I got pregnant with our second child within the first month after ending birth control. I can’t imagine the life, career, and most importantly, family I have without birth control. I will always be grateful my children have parents who were ready, wanted, and could provide for them.
Access to reproductive choices allowed me to graduate from high school and start college. Without my “choices,” I would have been a single mother at 18 with very little work experience (scooping ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins for $1.75 an hour), forever tied to a petty criminal boyfriend who was an alcoholic and sold drugs on the side. As time went on, “reproductive choices” saved me from another bad alliance, this one with an older man who was emotionally abusive, mentally unstable, and who ultimately fell into drug addiction after having been in recovery (which is how we met, when I was 23). Freedom, and the privacy to decide with whom I might build a healthy, stable life, were possible for me due to Planned Parenthood, ready and confidential access to birth control, and the ability to choose abortion over relationships and connections that would have ruined my life. I went on to teach children for 20 years, then do social work with elders for several more.
I’ve been able to get a handle on PMDD and take control of my life, completing a PhD and getting to travel, exercise, and live fully without being sick half the month. I don’t know yet if I want children, but if I do choose them, they’ll have a mum who can give energy to them.
Access to accessible, affordable reproductive health care in MA and NY gave me the freedom to: — explore my own sexuality during college without getting pregnant — finish college, go to graduate school, and work in the field of marketing (which I thoroughly enjoyed) while dating and finally finding the man who I wanted to spend my life with — the guy who has been my husband for nearly 40 years — survive a miscarriage, with my fertility intact — pursue infertility treatments, which it turned out we needed in order to have our son and daughter — navigate menopause, trying different means for getting through those times I called “bucket of blood” days — survive breast cancer and continue working for another 20 years Truth be told, my journey was not just the life I built — it was built upon the systems that feminist fighters created for me in previous decades and centuries. They championed birth control, abortion, and new treatments. I built on their foundation.
I always wanted to remain childfree, and having the power to do so allows me to build my life around deliberate choices. I practice 1) knowing exactly why I am choosing something and 2) checking to see if I like my reason. This means my life can be fueled by what brings me joy rather than what comes from obligation. I believe all human beings create joy by making deliberate decisions. When social pressure—and algorithms—disrupt our ability to decide ON PURPOSE, they rob us of what makes us human. I am reclaiming my birthright, and I’m on a mission to help others do the same. Being blissfully childfree can be about caring for people who are already here.
For as long as I can remember I’ve never once wanted to have children; if anything, I’m perfectly content to live my whole life child-free if it means ending the intergenerational cycle of abuse and family grudges. That’s why it’s so important to me that everyone be able to choose whether to have children at all. I honestly would die in a country where childbearing is not just socially normalized and expected (as it still is in the “u.s.”), but made mandatory and unpreventable by wealthy narcissists who expect everyone else to churn out more humans for them to exploit and violate at will.
The freedom to say no. My mother asked me one question, as we sat in her car parked outside the free clinic where she took me for a test, “Do you want to have a baby?” I said, “No.” The freedom to make that decision for myself gave me time to grow up, to finish high school, and go to college. It allowed me to discover myself and my interests, to have friendships and romances, to find work and live on my own. It gave me the chance to find a partner and have children when we were ready and able to provide for them. My whole life has been filled with opportunities and experiences that wouldn’t have been available to me if I’d had to have a baby when I was fifteen years old.
I’m struggling now but if I didn’t have rights to my own body, who knows where I would have ended up.
Finish high school and college without having a pregnancy. It also allowed me to support friends who needed access to contraceptives to fulfill their life choices.
I had an abortion in 1984, when I was 22 years old. I was single, working for just a bit over minimum wage, and going to college. Even though I was using birth control, I got pregnant. I would had to quit college, I had no partner support, no parental support and no peer support. The decision to abort was immediate. I had it at 8 weeks. My insurance paid 50% of charges at the time. After that, I ditched my boyfriend, finished at a 2 year college, went on to get a bachelor’s degree, then get married, go back and get my Master’s degree. I’m a career Registered Nurse, at the top of my field. None would have been possible without the abortion. I would have been on public assistance, trapped in poverty. I’ll be forever grateful that I lived at a time where I had full bodily autonomy.
Having access to birth control pills not only helps to manage my adenomyosis, but by taking them continuously, it also has helped my iron levels come up (which had been very low for years due to my heavy menstruation cycle). Consequently, my iron deficiency anemia is getting under control so I won’t have to endure more years of iron infusions.
Have the flexibility to make timely choices best suited for my family and my career.
Gave me the freedom to decide when and how to start my family. It gave me the autonomy and control over my body.
Having access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to get an education, develop professional skills and a business, and have a full and happy adult life. I got pregnant when my birth control failed in my early 20’s. I had just finished college, had no work experience, and no career goals. I was very lost, and single. I had a legal abortion and went on to get a Master’s degree and a PhD. I went on to create my own business as an Organization Development Consultant (specializing in DEI), and an executive leadership coach. I helped a lot of people and organizations realize their potential. And I realized my own potential. I am grateful that safe and legal abortion was available to me when I needed it.
I had severe endometriosis and as a consequence, zero fertility. So my attitude toward reproductive care and choices is a bit different. Birth control as a medication gave me the ability to live without great pain and to manage what were unmanageable periods. Sometimes the quality of birth control as a medication is overlooked. But for me, it made an incredible difference in the way I could live my life and the choices I could make. We should always without reservation or hesitation have that option. Full stop.
Access to abortion gave me the freedom to continue pursuing a bachelor’s degree and experiencing young adulthood in D.C. and being on birth control gives me the peace of mind to focus on my education and building a career.
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