I never told anyone about my abortion. This is the first time I have ever talked about it. It was 1983 and I was in college. We were Catholics so I didn’t know much about birth control and we were expected to be virgins on our wedding nights. My parents had told me before I left for college that if I ever got pregnant before marriage or had an abortion they would never speak to me again. Of course I figured it could never happen to me. My boyfriend and I used condoms but they are not 100% effective and the unthinkable happened. I was terrified my family wouldn’t ever talk to me again, and I could not figure out how I would ever manage to keep a baby and not tell them. I had plans after college and good grades and I knew I didn’t want to get married yet. It was a very difficult decision for me on the one hand, because I did not want to hurt the growing fetus, but I also knew there was no other way. I was so thankful that the clinic I went to helped me non-judgmentally and everything went smoothly with the abortion. It took me a long time to find peace with my decision because I have never been able to tell anyone in my family to this day, and I was afraid if I told a friend my family might find out. This was the worst part of it, the mental difficulties of not being able to talk about it. Eventually I came to peace with my abortion, and now I have 2 beautiful daughters and we have a great relationship. I don’t regret having the abortion.