I had my abortion in 1971, pre Roe v. Wade, in NYC. I had never been outside my Southern state by myself before and I was terrified.

Back in the late 50's I was pregnant and got the German measles. My Dr. recommended an abortion. Back then it went to a panel of 5 Drs and they all recommended an abortion.

I am 64. I got pregnant the first time I had sex at 18 when I was a freshman in college in 1968. I thought I would have the baby, but my parents talked me into having an abortion. My mother, who had an illegal back alley abortion, paid for me to have a hospital abortion, which was also illegal...but nothing like what she went through.

I was 20 and part of a fundamentalist Christian group that worked with underprivileged children in New York City. If I had told any of the leaders, I would have been sent back to my church and family in shame. That had happened to another young woman I knew – she was thrown out of the program, and sent back home – while the young man got a stern lecture but no consequences.

I am now in my seventies. When I had my abortion it was not yet legal, nor were there birth control pills. I was 19 and in love with my college boyfriend.

I grew up in a home surrounded by mental illness. I knew I didn't have the skills or the gene pool for parenthood, but I got married to a manipulative man and we got pregnant twice.