I had an abortion at barely 16 years old. It wasn't my first idea, but I wasn't in a relationship and had been abusing drugs regularly.

I grew up catholic in the Chicago suburbs. There was a lot of emphasis placed on the 10 commandments and morality. I remember when I was young and thinking that having an abortion was absolute: you killed, and therefore you are forever a bad person.

I always thought I'd have a child at 27. That's the age my mother had me, the age my grandmother was when she had my mother. But when I became pregnant at 27, it wasn't the way I had seen it.

In early 2010 I woke up in bed at my boyfriend's house with a pain in my abdomen. The pain persisted and became unbearable over the course of an hour and he decided to take me to the hospital.

I traveled to Mexico when I was 17. I went to study pottery and Spanish. I started seeing a man 10 years older than I was- I got pregnant.

My abortion was fairly recent. It was in August. My Nuvaring failed and I ended up pregnant. My boyfriend and I had discussed what we would do in the event of a pregnancy and knew that abortion was the right choice for us. But when it happened we were shocked. I foolishly thought it could never happen to me.