Interview with a Broken Heart: One Woman's Story of Abortion Part 2

Growing up, I didn't believe in abortion. I never thought that I would become pregnant and be left to face with that kind of decision. In the back of my mind I knew that I would never choose to abort my unborn child. I found myself in an unplanned pregnancy when I was seventeen. My family insisted that the smart thing to do was to have an abortion. I refused and in the next nine months had a beautiful baby girl who I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. A year later I married her father. We were both still very young and with a new baby in the picture it put a lot of strain on our relationship. He was constantly in and out of jail due to drinking. I stayed with him for the sake of our daughter and I truly did love him. In a sense I felt like I was the only one who could help him.

A few years later I found myself pregnant once again. Despite my marriage falling apart, I refused to have an abortion and went on to have a baby boy. My two children kept me strong through my husband's abuse. He started drinking more and doing drugs. The emotional abuse got worse and soon followed physical abuse. At this time I realized I could nothing to help him. For the safety of my children, I filed for divorce.

In April of 1994 I met the most wonderful man. He treated me and my kids with love and kindness. We married in June of 1995 and shortly after tried to have a baby. We were excited to have another baby that would be both of ours. In August of 1996 our daughter was born. We wanted to have another baby and planned to try to conceive in the spring. Unfortunately I damaged two discs in my back from a car accident and we had a lot of financial issues, so our plan to have another baby was on hold. After my back healed, I went back to work. My husband wanted desperately to have another baby but I avoided the discussion as much as possible. I was getting older and the three of my children were stressful enough.