He was my first serious boyfriend and neither of us knew anything about birth control or pregnancy prevention thanks to the lack of accurate sex ed from our religious high school. I became pregnant within a few months of losing my virginity and had an abortion at 18.

12 years later, I am now married to the same man and working for Planned Parenthood as a communications manager. My office is in the same building that I had my abortion. Even though I have built a life I am proud of, filled with men and women who share my values about choice, I am still too afraid to tell anybody. The stigma is real.