A Majority of People Who Have Abortions Are Already Mothers — Including Mine

I always thought people who had abortions were largely single and not ready to be parents, but I was way off.

By Jesse SposatoMay 17, 2022 @ 2:29 pm

As an only child, I spent most of my young life wishing for a sibling: to play with, to hang with on vacation, to share bunk beds with. But I never got one; instead, I would have to make do with my dog, Lance, whom I thought was an actual sibling until I was at least 4 years old. 

Once, when visiting my mom for the weekend while in my early 30s, she told me about an abortion she'd had years earlier. It was her second. I already knew about the first one, the illegal abortion she'd had in the Dominican Republic in the late '60s when she was 19. I knew, too, about her taking a friend to see activist Bill Baird a year or so later in New York City to arrange for her to have an abortion. She told me about these early experiences when I was in college, getting deeper into feminism, and starting to go to women's rights marches. She wanted me to know she understood where I was coming from, that she believed these things were worth fighting for, too. Read more.