It was something I needed to do at the time I did it.

The first 16 years of my life were something out of a Lifetime Channel movie; alcoholic, misogynist, abusive stepfather; enabling and psychologically damaged mother; and a spoiled, bratty, but obedient younger sister.

I've always been pretty proud of my relationship with my body. I listen to it, I love it, I touch it, I know it. At least until my nurse told me that I was pregnant.

One in three American women will have an abortion in her lifetime. I am one of them. At 23 years old I found myself faced with an unintended pregnancy. I was shocked.

I got pregnant the first time I had sex. I know because that's the only time we didn't use birth control. I didn't even think that was possible--the very first time?

I was 18 years old, and had only been in the military for less than a year. I had lost my virginity less than a year before all this. A few months before finding out I was pregnant (in spite of using condoms) I found out my mom had non-hodgkins lymphoma.