The following is based on a true story. However, I revised a few details.

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I was terrified. My parents will kill me! I thought. I had been dating the same guy for two years. We used protection, most of the time anyway.

I finally broke the news to my boyfriend: “I’m pregnant”.

“You have to get an abortion,” he said. “I’ll pay for it.”

Fear paralyzed me. I had let my parents down. At the age of 15, I couldn’t afford to raise a child, let alone pay for the hospital bill. And what about my plans of becoming a doctor?

Although I never told my parents, nobody else offered me any other options. My best friend drove me to the abortion clinic and let me stay at her place afterwards until I felt normal again.

I admit, I felt a burden lift immediately afterwards. But now depression taunts me. When I see a mom with her baby, I can’t help but wonder about the baby I aborted. Was my baby a boy or a girl? What color of hair and eyes would she have had? What would her personality be like?

Every time I visit a gynecologist and have to fill out my medical history, I am reminded that I am part of a national statistic as a parent. I chose to abort my first child. And I have to ask myself: What did I miss with my child because I chose to abort? How would my life be different if I knew the options then that I know now?

***

Every day a young girl becomes pregnant. She is usually afraid and many times feels alone and unsure where to turn. At Life Choices Clinic in Lewiston, Idaho, a trained Pregnancy Coach helps her by talking through her fears without judgment, confirms her pregnancy with a free pregnancy test and free ultrasound, and provides information she needs to make an informed decision. A wide variety of classes are also available.

Life Choices Clinic is a non-profit Christian ministry affiliated with Care Net. This ministry is dedicated to upholding the sanctity of all human life by offering life-affirming choices through providing pregnancy related medical and other support services in a compassionate, nonjudgmental environment. The Life Choices staff envisions a culture where women and men faced with pregnancy decisions are transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and empowered to choose life for their unborn children and abundant life for their families.