My First Pregnancy

When I woke up on the morning of January 20, 2017, Barack Obama was still president and I was still pregnant. When I woke up again a few hours later, he wasn’t and I wasn’t.

I didn’t have much time to spare when I scheduled the procedure to terminate my pregnancy. How far along I was mattered much more than the date on the calendar. But I did consider it a bit of weird timing—not quite irony, but something like it—that I would exercise my right to choose on that particular day.

I have been in favor of access to safe and legal abortion my entire adult life, but that position right to choose. I never imagined having to make that choice myself, and I knew I couldn’t be sure what my decision would be if I did have to choose. Turns out you can be in the situation—for real, not hypothetically—and still not be sure.