{"id":168859,"date":"2017-07-12T13:52:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T17:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=168859"},"modified":"2017-07-12T19:20:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T23:20:07","slug":"woman-reveals-story-abortion-regret-choices-have-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-reveals-story-abortion-regret-choices-have-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman pressured into abortion reveals story of regret: ‘Our choices have consequences’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 2013 story published on CNN’s iReport<\/a>\u00a0is a raw look at the pain of a woman, known only as Jojo 106, from Virginia, who had an abortion — not a recent one, but one she had seven years prior to the recounting of her story. In her testimony, Jojo says she is “still heartbroken” over her abortion decision at age 19, adding that abortion has “major consequences that are not discussed and are unknown to the general public.”<\/p>\n

Jojo is correct. Abortion has a number of physical risks. A woman obtaining a first-trimester suction aspiration abortion could experience<\/a>\u00a0uterine perforation, infection, hemorrhage, future infertility, incomplete abortion, cervical incompetence in future pregnancies, or even death. But along with this, for many women like Jojo, the long-term emotional and mental consequences<\/a> of an abortion — such as drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety — can be devastating.<\/p>\n

Jojo describes how her boyfriend was abusive to her, as he was “desperate to cause a miscarriage,” and even “threatened to perform an abortion on me himself or… kill me.” He took her to get an abortion, but she missed the appointment because she was begging him to let her keep their baby. She writes:<\/p>\n

Because we missed the appointment, I received a terrible beating. He forced me to take blue and black cohosh pills 3 each, 3 times a day after that. We went on winter break for school shortly after that and went back to our homes in different states. With him not being there to breathe down my neck, I stopped taking the pills. I was afraid to tell my parents about my pregnancy and about my abuse, and most abused women are the same way….<\/p>\n

It was a nightmare and I felt like I had nowhere to turn. I loved my child, and even named him\/her, but I felt like I had no other choice. I tried to put it off until the last possible day, which was the day before I went back to college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jojo made another appointment for an abortion, and says that the counseling she received at the facility consisted of “me signing forms and getting birth control, and being told that I was brave.” Many women speak of a lack of options counseling at abortion facilities. In fact, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is required<\/a> (as a Title X recipient of federal family planning funds) to give women counseling on all their pregnancy options. However, this is clearly not happening — and if the nation’s largest abortion conglomerate isn’t properly counseling women, then expecting that smaller conglomerates are doing so seems unrealistic, at best:<\/p>\n