I got pregnant in the 60's when abortion was illegal. Not only was it illegal, but there was very little information about birth control. I had a friend who asked a doctor about birth control pills and not only did the doctor refuse to give it to her, he lectured her about her morals.

I got caught and got pregnant. I don't want any lectures about abstinence. It takes two people to make choices about sex, not just the woman.

Now, what were my choices? Find someone who could loan me money to go to Puerto Rico for an abortion, the only place it was legal? Go to a backstreet butcher doctor? Try it myself with a coat hanger? Or give up my baby for adoption. Of course, I couldn't keep the baby because at that time in our history, not only didn't we have access to birth control, we also couldn't bring a baby home without complete society ostricism. We young women couldn't win no matter what we chose. Either die or give up your baby or be rich enough to travel out of the country for an abortion.

I didn't even want to consider an abortion, regardless of how it could be done. I couldn't imagine getting rid of the life within me, so I decided to give up my child for adoption. I was lucky, I was able to contact my son 26 years later and become good friends with him and his adopted family. Then, he died 8 years later in a freak accident.

However, after all of this, I absolutely believe that the right to an abortion is the absolute right of any woman. Everyone's circumstances are different and having been in the situation I was in, I know that it is important to save the life of a woman because if abortion is again illegal, many, many, many women will die. Abortion won't go away if it is illegal.

The abortions have increased only slightly since the time when it was illegal. At that time there were 1.2million abortions a year. Our population has doubled since then and there are only about 1.4million abortions now (more or less, the last I checked.) The difference is that women are living, not dying in back alleys.

So there, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.