Over 40 years ago, my husband and I decided to hold off stating a family, so we were vigilant about using birth control.

One winter day while shoveling the driveway, my entire body began to flush and I was soon covered with hives. It became hard to breathe. My husband raced me to the doctor, where I was diagnosed as having a severe allergic reaction, cause unknown. Before the doctor gave me a life-saving injection of medicine, he asked if I was pregnant. How could I be? I was consistently using birth control, and I hadn’t missed a period. So, he gave me the injection, and my symptoms slowly abated.

But then my period was late, and I thought perhaps it was from my medical scare. No, somehow I was pregnant, and I had exposed the one-week old embryo to a medication known to cause significant malformations of the heart and other essential organs. That medication was – and still is - prohibited during pregnancy.

I had an abortion within a few weeks, and I am forever grateful that I wasn’t forced to bring a severely malformed child into the world.