When I was 18 years old heading off to college, I had one last August fling with my longtime high school sweetheart. A few weeks into my freshman year on campus I starting getting kind of sick every day. I chalked it up to too much drinking and nerves in a new place. But after a few days, I wasn’t getting any better, so I went to the student health center.
To my utter shock, they asked me a question I had truly not even considered — Could I be pregnant? Wait, what?! No, not me. Not the first month I was on my own ever, hours from home. Not a college athlete, training twice a day. Not six hours from him, my now ex-boyfriend. Not without anyone yet close enough to confide in.
They ran a test. Pregnant. They talked about options. But for me, there was only one CHOICE. Abortion. I called my high school sweetheart. Somehow, he knew why I was calling. I was so early in the pregnancy, the clinic suggested waiting a few weeks. I made an appointment. Two weeks later, he drove those six hours to be with me that September weekend. Although we lost touch many years ago now, I’m still beyond grateful for that drive he made to be with me, to this day.
I don’t remember a lot about that weekend. I do remember the entire thing took about a half hour. And we went to brunch after. Like nothing had happened. In reality, not much had. I had simply gone from being in the early stage of pregnancy, to not. Via a safe medical procedure. That was my constitutional right.
Looking back now, everything had also happened. I had a choice over my future. That choice saved me. It saved the life I have built now. A life still without children, because as it turns out, I never actually wanted to be a mother. A choice that led to a loving, supportive husband, a close-knit family, some of the best friends a girl could have, living in a city I now call home, building a successful career.
This isn’t about me, though. My story is one in millions. For so many today and in the future, that choice—that RIGHT—is simply gone. Because of a Court that has been both politicized and weaponized against women and the rights we have (had) over our own bodies (well, at least just women, for now).
Life is still full of choices. Every day. Just not the one I was privileged enough to make for so many reasons. A choice that I will fight like hell to get back for women everywhere. Until then, with sorrow, I dissent.