I had an abortion a few months ago and I can relate to many of the girls/women on here. I’m 17 years old and got pregnant by a guy that’s in his 20s. A combination of irresponsibility and plain bad luck caused the pregnancy. When we found out that I was pregnant, we initially decided that I would get an abortion, despite our religious beliefs against it. But as time went on, I realized that it was the wrong decision. God could get me through the situation if I decided to have the baby. From that moment, I made a plan for my life that would accommodate me raising my child, completing high school, and going to university. I knew it would be hard, but I also knew that it was possible. I hadn’t yet told anyone in my family because I was indecisive about my decision, and I knew that if I told them, they wouldn’t let me have the abortion. I tried to seek guidance from friends and many of them told me that I should keep the baby. In the end, I listened to my partner, and when I was 8 weeks pregnant, we went together and I had the abortion.

I thought I would be okay after I did it, but I’ve kind of been a mess ever since. I still haven’t told my family because I’m scared of what they’d say. So I’ve been handling the situation by internalizing it. I can’t talk to my friends about it because they don’t understand, neither do I think that they really care. I think they think that I should get over it and move on because I made the choice to abort the child. I also can’t talk to my partner about it because he wants to hear nothing of the subject.

A day or two after the abortion, I spent a lot of my time crying. I cried at the sight of a baby, when I saw young mothers, and sometimes just at the thought of what happened. It’s been about 4 months since that, and I cry about once a week. I always imagine what my baby would have looked like, the type of life it would’ve had, and whether I would have regretted having it.

To any young girl that’s pregnant, do what YOU believe is right. Ultimately, you have to live with the consequences of your decision. For any of you, like me, who have Christian values, take this as a lesson learnt, and live the life that God wants you to live. I wish everyone who reads this the best of luck.