Four Years Since the Fall of Roe
We are the majority. These are our stories.
279 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.
What’s your reproductive freedom story?
It’s quite natural to be concerned about one’s body and being able to make decisions if you want a baby or not- I have 6. It’s a choice not for everyone. It’s hard work that will last a lifetime. Please let women and men have autonomy over their own bodies. After all, it’s My Life.😊
I am adopted. My birth mother could have had an abortion, but she chose not to. I am grateful for this life she gave me, but I am also well aware that the world would continue to spin without me in it. My singular life is not so important that she should have been forced to have me. She made her own choice, and I want everyone to have the opportunity to have that choice. I am the product of rape. I have met my birth father. I believe our justice system must move towards reconciliation so we can all learn and be better. What he did is unforgivable, but we should all be allowed to learn from our mistakes. I would never have known the difference if I had not been born, but my birth mother has to live with her decision, and looking upon me must bring great pain. I could not have done what she did. She is so strong, but that is not the choice that everyone could make. I want to live in a world where every child is wanted.
…Finish my college education and graduate school, and move on to a 23-year career with the federal government. It also bought me the time to reflect and finally realize that I never wanted children. I felt zero guilt or regret when I had my abortion. I had mental breakdowns in my 30s because of the “biological clock” society reminded me was ticking. I asked myself, if I was pregnant now, would I be happy? All I felt at the idea was stress and misery. There was no happiness. That’s when I realized all those years I just assumed motherhood was a marker of success. But it wasn’t. It never was. It was just a patriarchal pressure every little girl grew up hearing about. A patriarchal brainwashing. Once I let go of the idea, my stress vanished. I was happy again. That’s what reproductive freedom gave me above all. Happiness. And without it, how can life possibly be worth living?
I grew up as a refugee in Kakuma, Kenya, where many young people face difficult choices about their future. I learned early that when a young person has the freedom to make informed decisions about their body, education, relationships, and when to have children, their future can look very different. For me, having the opportunity to pursue education and imagine a future beyond survival gave me hope. It taught me that our circumstances do not have to determine the rest of our lives. Today, I work with vulnerable and orphaned children and young people in Kakuma because I know how powerful opportunity can be. I especially want girls to have the knowledge, confidence, and freedom to protect their futures, continue their education, and make informed decisions about their lives. The life I built is still growing. But it is a life shaped by hope, education, dignity and the belief that every young person deserves the freedom to choose their future.
My name is Kortney, and I am 63. I have a 23-year-old daughter. I was an older mother because I chose to be. My life and growth were, and have always been, a slow burn. I came from rural NY, grew up in LA where my world was cracked open, and ended up in San Francisco at 21. I was living, learning, experiencing life, and part of that was being sexually active. I found myself pregnant (cervical cap mishap) when I didn’t want to be. I wasn’t ready emotionally, mentally and especially financially to parent. Planned Parenthood was there to give me the healthcare I needed–an abortion. Since then, it’s taken me many years to discover myself, get a degree, travel, marry my best friend, make lifelong friends, and rescue a few dogs and cats along the way. I haven’t lived a remarkable life on paper, but I’ve lived the life I chose. I now live in Spain and travel Europe! Grateful every day for the choice I had then, and I fight every day for reproductive freedom for my daughter and all women.
I never wanted a child. I’m the adult survivor of childhood physical and sexual abuse. I have mental health issues. I never felt stable enough to raise a child properly. Access to reproductive choices, being able to go to a doctor and say I wanted birth control, and then get it, was crucial. I had a pregnancy scare in high school, and at age 18 I went without having to tell my conservative catholic parents about it, to have an IUD implanted. Had I not been able to access birth control, which I remained on until menopause, I would’ve been a shit mother. And the world would’ve judged me harshly for that. I won’t say not having a child allowed me to do extraordinary things, because I haven’t done extraordinary things. I made it through college. I’ve had several careers & not been a great success at any of them. I’ve experienced homelessness, alcoholism, & I’ve dealt with suicidal ideation. I’m an adult who can barely take care of myself, let alone a child.
In college in the early 2000s my birth control pills were upwards of $50, which is an extraordinary amount of money for a college freshman in the year 2000. I definitely had to choose that refill over other basic needs. Because I got to decide when I started my family, I have a graduate degree and three beautiful children who were very wanted. Also, and I think this is worth saying, my husband and a previous partner had access to an abortion when they were too young to have a family. This allowed both of them to go on to have thriving, successful, happy marriages and families as adults. I wish more men would speak about how they benefited from access too.
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 medical 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.
In college, I was able to obtain a low-cost diaphragm at Planned Parenthood, so my first serious relationship didn’t include an unwanted pregnancy that would interrupt my ability to graduate. After college, nine years later, I worked in marketing and then pivoted to attend graduate school in clinical psychology, and got married in my mid-thirties; I was on the birth control pill. Not only did it allow me to accomplish my career goals, but it also helped manage my endometriosis. After getting married, I underwent infertility treatment where I had access to medication to enhance my fertility and procedures to understand why I kept having miscarriages (five total–no children). My longest pregnancy ended with a D&C. Without it and without a doctor who was trained to do abortions, I might have had complications and not been able to continue trying. In perimenopause, I had the estrogen patch, the ring, and now, post menopause, estrogen cream. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE IS MY MEDICAL RIGHT.
As a woman coming of age in the late 1980s, I took for granted my access to contraception. Because of that, I was able to pursue my education and career, ultimately choosing not to have children. To see those basic rights being taken away now is heartbreaking. I realize I was fortunate, and now I am using my voice and my vote to see that women do not lose the right to make one of the most important choices of their lives.
Raise my two beautiful children.
I ended up having six kids. I mostly raised them myself. I worked for the public library for most of 45 years. I was finally able to buy my own home in 2000. I went back to school in my 50s and got my BA. I started my Master’s but health problems cut that short. I retired 10 years ago at 65. I now do water aerobics and water Zumba 4-5 days a week belong to a meditation group as well as Al-Anon. My house is pretty derelict now but I am still fighting the good fight as best I can.
When I was 18, I had an illegal abortion. I was able to go to college, travel to Europe, get married and have two children.
I got pregnant a few months after our second baby was born (IUD failure) but abortion was already legal in New York State so I went across the river from NJ. Happy ending!
I heard Gloria Steinem counsel an old woman against bioengineered old age pregnancy with the words “You’ll be invaded.” Those words probably saved two lives. Everytime I’ve seen a flag at half mast since September 2, 2026, I think it should be flying for Gloria.
Access to reproductive choice gave me the freedom to live my life fully—and ultimately to build the life and family I wanted. I became pregnant at 17 by an abusive boyfriend. I chose to have an abortion. Four months later, my mother died of ovarian cancer. I cannot imagine what it would have meant to be forced to carry a pregnancy and raise a child while navigating profound grief and an abusive high school relationship. I attended a Catholic high school, where becoming a pregnant teenager also would have meant I could not finish my senior year with my classmates. That choice did not prevent me from becoming a mother. It allowed me to become a mother when I was ready. Today, I am 51 years old. I have been married for 21 years and am the mother of amazing 17-year-old twin boys. I am a licensed professional counselor, have earned a doctorate in counselor education, and now teach graduate students the science, humanity, and transformative potential of clinical mental health counseling.
Sept. 14, 2026 Nancy When I was in my early 20’s, I had children because I thought that was what you were “supposed to do.” I even remember thinking to myself, “well, I don’t want to go to school, so I guess I’ll have children.” I wasn’t very politically conscious…and I was still reacting to my emotionally abusive childhood….I remember my sister-in-law, whom I admired (and was more conscious) saying that she had a child because she would have someone to love her… To make a long story short, I had two abortions; each after one of my two daughters was born. Both times, I had no support from their dad and had to arrange for the transportation and appointments by myself (he was an an emotionally + physically abusive “partner”). But I remember after the first abortion, thinking that it was the most liberating day of my life. And one could imagine the lack of space to develop my own abilities, pain and oppression as a woman that I would’ve suffered, without the right to abortion…
The life I built is for my reasons. I have no children, by choice. Same for my husband.
Access to the reproductive choice of traveling from Chicago to NYC for a legal abortion in 1971, gave me the freedom to choose to be a single mother in 1973, to graduate from college, to graduate from law school, build a career as a lawyer, purchase my own home, and be financially independent. Fortunately my daughter has had access to reproductive choices that enabled her to achieve higher education and some financial stability. However, after she discovered a large fibroid that posed a pregnancy risk, my daughter chose to be estranged from me. With freedom comes responsibility to act wisely, and development of more self control is necessary.
Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to escape an abusive relationship, finish my degree, travel the world and start the family I always dreamed of. I would not be the advocate or mother I am today had I’d been forced to continue a pregnancy I was not ready for. My abortion was my first acknowledgement that I was in abusive relationship and did not want to be with that man for the rest of my life. On my way to my class during my undergrad, I knew I had to take a pregnancy test, when it came out positive I wasn’t sure of my next move. I wrote a pros and cons list. First pro, I always knew I wanted to be a mother, Con, my boyfriend at the time regularly got drunk and put his hands on me. Con, I was a full time student with a full time job without the means or healthy relationship to raise a child. I chose to have an abortion. After receiving my masters degree, I now work for an abortion fund in Texas and am the mother I always knew I wanted to be.
access an uncomplicated and unregretted abortion in New York City in 1976. My IUD “failed”, my take home salary was $98 a week, and my partner and I never considered continuing the pregnancy. I was then able to serve a much desired apprenticeship in an entertainment industry union, meet the man to whom I have been married for the last 42 years, and work on Broadway shows, as well as national and world tours. My union pension has allowed me to spend my retirement years volunteering for reproductive access. It’s the best “pay it forward” I could imagine.
I got pregnant the first time at 18 and it ended in a miscarriage. Of course, being young, we didn’t wait the recommended recovery time and became pregnant again. I had to have a dnc for that second miscarriage. Then I was 19 and got pregnant with my son. My pregnancy and birth were good, but life got hard. I got an IUD and this saved me from more hardship. We couldn’t afford another child. By having the choice of when to have a child or getting timely medical help, saved my life and reproduction. I heard so many stories of miscarriage after having one myself and found out how common it was. Everyone still doesn’t talk enough about how important communication and community are around these life-altering decisions. I am so glad that my birthing years are behind me because the current environment is not a healthy place for women or children.
Get a doctor to get an abortion that was safe and legal especially since the fetus wasn’t viable!! More women have died from lack of pregnancy than ever!! No uterus no vote! Keep your head out of women’s business!!
Go to graduate school, build a career, freeze my eggs and embryos, and decide for myself when to start a family. My husband and I were able to use reproductive technology, and we’re expecting our first baby in 3 months.
Having been unwanted as a child I vowed to only bring into the world a child that I wanted and could love and provide for while persuading my own development. This plan made an enriched, meaningful life possible for me. I did not have “it all.” I did have all that I cared about most.
My period affected every aspect of my life until access to contraceptives gave me the freedom to live life on my own terms — personally, academically, and professionally. One time, in the middle of vacation, my friend had to watch me pull over, vomit, and lay down on the gas station floor until my symptoms subsided. Another time, my dad watched me stumble home from school after vomiting all over the interior of my car, missing most of my classes to spend the rest of the day in a blood-soaked tub. This was my new monthly normal. All of that changed once I went on the pill. I suddenly had the freedom to be in social spaces, classrooms, and work environments without worrying about vomiting, passing out, keeling over with debilitating cramps, sweating profusely, etc. I now have my MPP, a fur baby I love more than anything, a partner I love just as much, and a beautiful home. None of this would’ve been possible without access to contraceptives and the relief they gave me.
The freedom to pursue my education and build my career, knowing that I can decide whether to have a family on my own terms.
Having my abortion at age 18, the summer I graduated from high school a week before I started college, allowed me to successfully obtain a bachelors and ultimately a masters degree and start a successful career. I started a family four years after I married, when I was better equipped to be a mother and had started to deal with the abuse in my family of origin. I became the primary breadwinner in a two parent household and wouldn’t have been able to do that without college. I’ve worked for nearly forty-five years to improve the quality of life for women and their families. I’m proudest of raising a feminist son who understands gender inequality and the need to address injustices wherever found. In short, I would not have had the life I lead nor been able to help those in need in four states that I’ve lived if I had not made the best decision of my life.
I had an abortion when I was 25 and single. It was the result of a D&C after an infection due to the dalcon shield. In no way was I ready to have a baby. I went back to school. Married a few years later. I had two beautiful daughters. I was able to spend time with them and both are very successful. I now have 4 grandchildren. All were wanted. No one should be forced to have children when they are not ready.
Have a child when emotionally ready and able to afford her. Had I had an unplanned pregnancy earlier, I never would have been able to finish college or graduate school and have a rewarding career as a college professor educating the next generation of helping professionals. It allowed me to LIVE – twice – when I had two ectopic pregnancies, either one of which could have killed me had it ruptured in my fallopian tube. I desperately wanted to be pregnant, but it wasn’t in the cards for me then. Today, in some states, terminating those pregnancies which could not possibly have gone to term and could have cost me my life, would be considered abortions and therefore illegal. But women should not only have the right to choose when their lives are literally on the line! If men got pregnant, abortion would be legal, safe, and affordable. Of course the ability to control their own bodies would be theirs to exercise, since they think the right to control ours belongs to them, too!
The ability to choose a safe, affordable abortion (thank you Planned Parenthood! ) in the 1980s at age 19 allowed me to finish college, go on to graduate school and earn a PhD, become a college professor, and eventually, make the decision to have a child with my husband in my 30s, when I was emotionally and financially ready to be a parent. Access to contraception made it possible for me to enjoy a healthy and enjoyable sexual relationship with my husband, knowing that sex would not lead to an unplanned pregnancy. Reproductive freedom has been essential to my ability to achieve my personal and professional goals and I believe it is the freedom upon which all of women’s other freedoms and choices depends.
I grew up in the 1970-80’s in a family that expected women to marry before having intercourse with a man. My parents were Catholic, older, and incapable of conversations about sexuality outside of marriage. Fortunately, I had good sex education in my public school, and I was able obtain free contraceptives without my parents’ knowledge at my local Planned Parenthood clinic. This allowed me to have healthy relationships and to get my high school, college, and graduate degrees without any unintended consequences. Without contraception, I would have gotten pregnant in my teens and most likely would have been sent away and made to place my baby with an adoptive family. It would have been an enormous shame to my family and likely would have changed my educational and professional future. I will be forever thankful for the extraordinary opportunities that contraception afforded me.
Upon entering my final year of college, I was only months away from the teaching career I had dreamed of since I was a child. It was then that I found myself simultaneously breaking up with a kind man I knew wasn’t for me and unexpectedly pregnant. I was nowhere near being psychologically or financially ready to be a mother. I exercised my right to a legal, safe abortion. I will forever be grateful for that opportunity. I was able to happily teach kindergarten for thirty-three years, marry a wonderful man, have three children, and now am a grandmother. I will forever support reproductive rights. Thanks to the freedom to utilize mine, I was able to live a life of intent.
To have children when iIcould afford them and care for them.
To choose when to reproduce!
Access to contraceptives means I am able to manage pain from my periods and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS/PMOS) and my quality of life has improved tenfold over the last 3 months I’ve been taking an oral contraceptive pill. I would be in bed for days with heavy periods and general pain throughout the month until diagnosed with PCOS and having access to the pill gives me the freedom to live life every day how I want to!
Expand my horizons and live a better life. My ignorance and inexperience (and that of my male partner) led to birth control failure and my pregnancy at 16. I hadn’t the maturity nor the family and financial support to become a mother, or a desire to face carrying a baby to term only to give it up for adoption. I had an abortion, finished high school, and was fortunate enough to go away to college—an experience that transformed me and helped me find my life’s work doing something I loved and was suited for. I had two wonderful children in my late 30s, and have been able to provide for them financially and emotionally.
I was able to attend college, get a job and work in the field I loved. Eventually married, my job gave our family healthcare, as my husband was a professional freelance photojournalist with no benefits. I was able to have a child at age 32, as our jobs were ok, though we still dealt with the marriage tax penalty that wasn’t lifted until the 21st century and rising prices in the 1980s! It wasn’t easy. I put aside my artistic talent to make a paycheck in a related field and have a child, and this happened at the right time and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I believe my husband and I raised a wonderful and productive child who cares about humanity. Now years later, I am lucky to be a full time artist and sell my work.
Growing up I dreamt of seeing the world and giving acceptance speeches. I don’t know what I was winning. I was 8, but I was prepared with my speech. At 26, I was about to not only graduate from college and go to grad school, but I was also getting out of Indiana. At 26, I also had an abortion. I was about to see the world and I never wanted kids. I had no regrets then and still don’t. Unfortunately, we’re still keeping it a secret. I told 1 person. Twice in my life I’ve been with a woman, and it comes out that we’ve both had abortions. Once we realize, all we want to do is talk about it because we’ve been holding this secret so tight for so long. I’ve had a great life so far. I’ve traveled. I’ve written books. I’ve narrowly avoided being arrested in two countries. I’ve had a ton of fun. I haven’t given any acceptance speeches yet, but I’ve still got time.
Work! I was already single parenting my 6 month old son (something a woman in my mother’s generation could never have done, and been accepted), when I got pregnant again. It was 1979. Abortion had been legalized the previous year, and I had made the choice to complete the pregnancy that resulted in my son. I needed to work, to support us, and as a very young elementary school teacher, I could never have afforded day care for another baby. An abortion was absolutely right for my circumstances. Yes, I had feelings about the choice to say no to one possibility, that of bearing another child, especially when my love for my son was so powerful. But I was also saying yes, to the possibility of a future in which I could support us financially, and even go on to have more children when the circumstances permitted. (I did.) I am deeply glad that legal abortion was available; that unlike my mother who suffered an illegal, dangerous abortion 30 years before, I had real options open to me.
I didn’t have real access to them. In 2001 when I was 19 years old I got pregnant. My husband and I have two children now, and although he is an amazing husband/partner and father, my life went a different direction. I was a high level athlete and had chances for higher education with scholarships and grants. I am proud of my life today but I didn’t get to stay on the path where my true talents would shine. I am proud that my children have the wisdom and access to apply their true talents to their life paths and begin a family when they are ready to and have built foundations to support their decision to have families of their own. Most importantly letting themselves fully mature into adulthood before have babies of their own.
Have sex and not have it be a “seal of commitment to marriage.” I did not want to ever be defined by someone else (wife of…mother of…). Now, that being said, I did go down the rabbit hole of “male attention makes me someone.” No, no, it really made me feel like “no one” in the end. I did choose to have a child at age 39 and she is the love of my life. She is now 25 and does not and never has let a man define her. She defines herself. She has helped me be more “me” because I wanted to be an example of being yourself, unapologetically. She watched me in a long relationship, lose “me” and we escaped, we are free and I am “me.” Without reproductive choices, I would have never been able to “see me/be me.”
My name is Angel. I am 50 years old, and I live in rural Alabama. I know you might ask what a 50-year-old has to say about reproductive healthcare; you might be surprized. November 13th, 2003, my mother died unexpectedly at 46 years old. I got the call at the same time as I was getting ready to go to an ultrasound appointment with my OBGYN. I was around 14 weeks pregnant and had been having some bleeding. I couldn’t do anything but cry and postpone my appointment. I rescheduled for the next week and went on to mourn my mother. At my appointment (15 weeks), I found out that there was no longer a heartbeat, let nature run its course, and to come back in a week. I waited and bled for over 4 weeks before I finally was able to get a DNC that saved my life. Because of that lifesaving procedure, I was able to finish college, get my master’s degree, and raise 4 amazing sons. I have lived an amazing life because access to that DNC was an easy option, and my OBGYN had no fear in doing his job.
Have children and a successful career in academia. I had PPD after the birth of my older son that lasted most of his first year, because I had no access to mental health care (this was in 2001, and I lived in Mormon Utah where even medical professionals did not really believe anything serious could be wrong with a woman who just became a mom). My husband and I decided at that point we only wanted 1 child. 7 years later, I got unexpectedly pregnant while on the pill (my family jokingly nicknamed my younger son 1%). I was horrified. I knew I would not mentally or physically survive another experience like I had the first time. I made an appointment for an abortion. After much thought and discussion, we decided to have the child, because we were able to figure out how to pay for help and and practical support beyond what my husband, who works full time, could provide. It was MY CHOICE. Had I been forced to carry that pregnancy without my choosing to do so, I would not be here.
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.
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.
When I was 18, I had an illegal abortion. I was able to go to college, travel to Europe, get married and have two children.
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.
Our lives depend on this right.
Tell us what you built.
Published in Ms. · Be Part of the Record