dcardona

I am a white married mother of two. This last pregnancy turned out, at the end, to be pretty risky: kidney and liver function failing, and stroke/seizure around the corner. I was in the hospital for five days – with the baby as MY guest. She is now four months old. I am breastfeeding and back on birth control; my partner also plans on getting a vasectomy within the year.

To reiterate the facts: I am privileged as a cis, het, white woman. I am in a stable, monogamous, long-term, loving relationship. I am on birth control and soon my partner will be sterile. I am currently a mother.

If I get pregnant, I am getting an abortion.

I’m more fortunate than a lot of women because I have a support system that can help me with logistics – and cash – if needs be. And those closest to me won’t try to debate me on the idea or call me a murderer.

But here’s the thing: outward appearances of cis, het, educated, white, married motherhood – not to mention the fact I have opted out of the paid workforce for my daughters’ early childhoods – make me seem like the perfect poster lady for pro-life. It’s sort of like an invisible endorsement for them.

That makes it more and more important for me to be unafraid of saying, “If I get pregnant I am getting an abortion.” Because believe me, even with a uterus barely back in ...