00:00If men could get pregnant, it would be like getting your wisdom teeth out.
00:03If men had to get pregnant, nobody would be trying to change things around.
00:07We would definitely not be having this conversation right now.
00:11It would have been legal and accessible since probably the beginning of time.
00:23I was 24 years old and I got pregnant.
00:27I was with my boyfriend of three months at the time and I ended up pregnant.
00:33I was 23, simply not ready in any sense of the word to become a mother.
00:39It was very clear to me from the beginning that that was not a relationship that was going
00:45to be supportive of me having a child.
00:48It was not difficult for me to make the decision to have an abortion.
00:51I still had a lot of plans to continue to travel, to go to graduate school, to pursue
00:59a career that would allow me to make a difference in the lives of others and I knew that becoming
01:04a mother at that point in my life just would not have allowed me to do that.
01:08There was never a question in my mind that I would have an abortion.
01:11I had heard of Planned Parenthood.
01:14Everyone was extremely nice.
01:15I was only two weeks pregnant and I felt supported.
01:23Men wouldn't stand to be treated the way women accept that they should be treated and that
01:27is so embarrassing as a woman to say.
01:30I think it's important to talk about abortion because there is still a stigma.
01:35I think they're scared of women's sexuality.
01:38That is truly the only thing that I can understand.
01:41If a woman has control over when she is going to get pregnant and give birth, she in turn
01:46becomes more independent and there is more equality as a result.
01:51I was raised Catholic so naturally I did feel some sense of shame around kind of what was
01:58happening to me and about the decision that I knew I needed to make to basically save my
02:04own life.
02:05I made a decision for me and because you are scared of that and you don't like that you
02:10want to take away my decision making ability.
02:12You want to make me like not a person, not a woman basically in your mind.
02:20How did you feel after?
02:22Afterwards I felt grateful and relieved and ten years later after the fact I still feel that
02:33same sense of gratitude.
02:36Now looking back on those feelings I feel so much compassion for that person, for that
02:4324 year old who had like a tragically narrow view of like this has never happened to anybody
02:50else and it's only now really that I realize how common it is.
02:55I didn't feel that much.
02:56It wasn't like this huge emotional burden to me and it doesn't have to be.
02:59I don't have to justify it or explain it to anybody even though I'm happy to talk about
03:03it.
03:04I was just a regular 28 year old who didn't want a baby and I did something that was legal
03:10and medically safe and that's all there is to it.
03:13The more that women talk about abortion in a way that they show they're not ashamed, they're
03:18not sorry and that it's really a non-issue the more this issue will stop having such a heaviness
03:25and such a negative connotation.
03:26I think it's important to talk about abortion because you're taking away the tools of the
03:30people who are trying to shut you down.
03:32Like if you don't talk about it you're allowing people to decide how you feel about it.
03:38But for me it feels very empowering.
03:41I think that's the most important thing I can do is to just like stand up.
03:45Stop taping it.
03:46Add 1 minute to check!
03:46Click on fire for you and to check it out.
03:46Pick up!
03:47This is a couple of times I'm going to make sure you change the video.
03:50Click see it.
