{"id":205559,"date":"2019-06-30T08:31:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T13:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=205559"},"modified":"2019-07-01T11:20:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T16:20:37","slug":"planned-parenthood-lied-abort-didnt-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-lied-abort-didnt-listen\/","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood lied to me when they told me to abort. I’m so glad I didn’t listen."},"content":{"rendered":"
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My daughter mended my broken life. <\/span>It may sound silly to some, but as a young girl all I every truly desired was to be a wife and mother.\u00a0<\/span>There are some modern feminists who have something to say about this dream, but I don\u2019t care to listen anymore. Listening to women tell me that there was something more fulfilling sold me a carton of lies. I have traveled from New York to Hawaii and out of the country; I’ve been married, divorced, have focused on education and career, but nothing has compared to the love shared between myself and my child.<\/span><\/p>\n

I grew up in a small rural town but spent two weeks each summer with my grandparents in a metropolitan area. This is where I learned of Planned Parenthood. It was a place that would sell me \u201ccheap” ($30ish per pack) birth control to help my unruly skin problems and then \u201cat least I\u2019d be covered if I wanted to explore sex.\u201d So, at the age of 16, I began taking the pill without parental consent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I took the pill throughout the rest of my teens and into my early 20s. I married young to a man in the military. We waited two years and decided it was time to have children. Unfortunately, unknown to me, the years I had been on birth control messed up my natural production of hormones. I had four miscarriages. Our marriage dissolved. I was devastated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After my marriage broke apart, I became quite worldly in the ways of dating and going after all the things that I had been told \u201cwomen wanted.\u201d I wasn\u2019t aware of any resources to help locate the problems I had carrying a child to term, and of course Planned Parenthood wasn\u2019t really interested in actually helping me plan a family. So I continued to purchase birth control and live my life without addressing any true reproductive issues. I turned to drinking heavily to numb my pain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Former Planned Parenthood workers: We coerced women into getting abortions<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The more I became a “Cosmopolitan woman,” the unhappier I became. Eventually I found a man who was as interested in living selfishly as I was.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He had his own issues — substance abuse and just plain abuse. I became pregnant. He wanted an abortion. He had paid for two previous abortions with two ex-girlfriends. He was living with pain as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I visited Planned Parenthood. I was 28 at this time and well aware that I was without much personal support. I was desperate to find help that would allow me to prepare for motherhood.\u00a0<\/span>However, I was quickly ushered into a room where a woman (without a medical background) counseled me to have an abortion. They heard me string together two barely formed sentences and that was it\u2026 ABORTION. It would solve all my problems. I was told that because of my relationship status I would never have anything but hardships ahead of me. My boyfriend would try to seize custody of this \u201cpotential\u201d child from me, would never pay child-support, and I would never finish school or continue in my career alone. Once I made it very clear that I wanted to keep my baby, suddenly it was, \u201cWe can\u2019t help you.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I asked about ultrasounds, prenatal care, and support groups for single mothers. I wasn\u2019t even counseled on WIC services. I was told I would need to find and OBGYN. They didn\u2019t even offer to point me in the direction of filing for Medicaid, since I wouldn\u2019t be offered maternity leave from my current occupation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n