In 1971 I had an illegal abortion at age 19. I was lucky. I was in college and had access to a sociology professor who connected me with a physician in a nearby city. I had a safe place to spend the next 3 days. Still, it was a scary, painful, experience at night in a closed office building. The kind, brave, conscientious doctor,  admonished me to be quiet and gave me drugs that impeded my ability to understand the process, a D and C followed by the bloody expulsion of tissue a few days later. The father, who became a batterer and with whom I spent seven years, at least took me and paid the $75.00. Because of my fear and shame I didn’t tell anyone about it for years. I am immensely grateful that I followed my immediate intuition to reject the pressure to remain pregnant I got from the school doctor, the referring professor and afterwards by the father.

No one should have to have, or express, a “good enough” reason to get an abortion! In addition, I believe there should be no laws at all regulating abortion beyond those required for every other medical procedure.