You Owe it to Yourself to Learn More or It’s not worth it: Trish’s Story

Dear Birthright,

I’m sending you this letter in the hope that it will help other girls who are in the same position I was in. Most girls have a first love and he was mine. He was twenty-three and I never dreamed that I could feel the way I did about him or ever love a person so much. He was “just right” in my eyes and I believed nothing could go wrong between us – that is, until I got pregnant.

He brought up abortion first. I knew something had to be done, but I wanted to have the baby, even if we had to run away. But he kept worrying about what people would think. He spent a week convincing me to have an abortion but, at the same time, I was wondering why he didn’t call me as much or tell me that he loved me.

I remember calling places that offered help to pregnant teenagers and crying to a stranger over the phone. She asked me to come in and talk. I wish to God I had done just that. Instead, through tears, I made the appointment at the abortion clinic. I didn’t want to lose him. I clung to a stranger as I endured the procedure. He was in the waiting room, and I expected him to walk through the door, stop the abortion, and tell me we would be married, that he wanted our baby . . . He broke up with me two weeks after the abortion.

Feelings of guilt, shame, fear, love, anger, resentment, and remorse are inside of me. My precious little baby would have been born in July.
Don’t do what I did. It’s not worth it. A day does not go by that I don’t think about the choice I made, and cry . . . I keep remembering Dr. Seuss’ words, “I just have to save him, because after all, a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Never put more faith, trust, and belief in another person than you have in yourself. You owe it to yourself to to learn more, value yourself and your decision knowing the result will stay with you.

Sincerely,
“Trish”

YOU’RE NOT ALONE!

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