On today’s anniversary of Roe V. Wade, I share my story. I have had three abortions and remain grateful for each one. Without any one of these I would not have had my two children and I might not be alive.

The third abortion was when I learned the very much wanted fetus I was carrying had no heartbeat at 16 weeks. It had stopped, likely at the 15 week mark. My body would have miscarried at some point but quite possibly not before I was in mortal danger. It took an abortion procedure to safely see me through the ordeal.

The second was when at 12 weeks I learned the fetus I was carrying had a condition that meant, even if I was able to carry it to term, it would not survive outside the womb for more than a few hours. Since I was considered old to be pregnant, trying to carry to term a fetus that could miscarry at any moment was a dangerous prospect for me while also meaning certain death for the child in the rare chance it did come to term.

The first, I suppose, is the one that anti-abortion people would most like to have prevented me from having. I was not married, would not have married my partner at the time and I was not interested in having a child as a single mother. If I had carried that child to term, I would never have met the father of my children and they would not exist, an unthinkable outcome for me.

I am grateful that my work in the early days of helping to make abortion legal and safe paid off for me. I want it to remain that way for others.