Why am I pro-choice? Because when I was 17 I sat in the waiting room of a free clinic having the blood squeezed out of my hand by my college room-mate. The room-mate who'd just had unprotected sex with her first boyfriend. The guy who, before they had sex, had never been with another woman. But after the first time admitted that, well, actually, he had. And, oops, he had a "disease" and "hey, aren't you on the pill?"
So I'm 17 and in a waiting room with this freaked out girl. Whose religion frowns upon getting an abortion. And whose parents don't like the boyfriend in any case. And who has just missed her first period. "What am I going to do what am I going to do what am I going to do?" Over and over again. For hours.
If this were a movie, she wouldn't have to worry. There wouldn't be a baby and there wouldn't be a "disease."
But this was real. And there was a baby. And there was a disease. And then there was a dropping out of college. And a wedding. And three more babies in quick succession.
The last time I spoke to her, she told me told me her husband just lost his job. She told me her entire life view changed in that waiting room. Her oldest child is going to be 18 this year. Her pro-choice daughter. My former room-mate told me that she never wanted her children to be in the same position she found herself in.
This was the first time in my very sheltered life I'd met someone who was facing an unexpected pregnancy. But it wasn't the last. And it's never an easy decision. But it should always be a decision that is left up to the woman in question. Every story is different. My room-mate's story is possibly the most cliched story ever. But it happened.
I have always been pro-choice. To me, there is no question that abortion should be safe and legal.
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