abortion

What happens in Texas may not stay in Texas — a good reason for women across the United States to be concerned.

Women come to Planned Parenthood for a variety of reasons: an affordable check up from a licensed gynecologist, STD testing, pregnancy testing, LGBT services, and to have an abortion. The women present at that clinic in Colorado on Friday had different reasons for being there. What did they have in common? They were all subjected to a dangerous man.

My husband and my best friend were with me. They realized quickly something was wrong when the ultrasound tech moved us from one room to another. Then she sent in the doctor and we were told the news: one twin had died, probably a week or two earlier.

Over those five years, I volunteered on hot summer days and rainy mornings. I stood in snow, wearing warm layers and fleece mittens. I volunteered beside women and men, many of them young, like me, but some older and wiser and living out a lifetime of experience on those sidewalks.

I live, work,and was also raised in Canada, where abortion has been legal since the late '80s. And before that — since the late '60s — it was legal with the permission of a committee of doctors who would agree whether or not an abortion was necessary for the mental or physical well-being of the mother.

You see abortion, whether you believe in it or not, is a thing. Abortion, whether it’s legal or not, is a thing. Abortion, whether it’s safe or not, is a thing. In all of human history, there have been women who were pregnant when they did not wish to be and they found ways to end the pregnancies.

The body does not want an abortion, and subjects a woman to misery. But that may be a good thing.

Seven years before I was born, my mother made a decision that would change her life—and lead to mine.