My abortion story guides my support for a woman’s right to choose.
I was 19. Unmarried. Attending college. It was 1970: before Roe v. Wade. I sought an illegal, unsafe abortion but was terrified by the unsanitary, unsafe conditions and so I left college, married the father and altered my life (and his) forever.
No woman should face such untenable, life-altering choices: risk death or a loveless marriage. Abortion must be safe and that means legal. It is a medical decision, not a political one. For those of us who remember before Roe v. Wade, we know how important protecting a woman’s right to control her body is. It truly is a matter of life and death.