“When I was 17 years-old I was able to access an abortion through Planned Parenthood. At that time I had already been working and living outside of my mom’s home for nearly 3 years and was responsible for my younger brother who was then 15 years-old and my dependent. I worked full time while he went to school. I paid for all of our expenses.
Even though at 17 I was technically underage, in Albuquerque, NM I was able to access an abortion without having to seek permission from my parents. If parental permission had been required it would have meant talk to a father from whom I had long been estranged due to a history of abuse, or a mother with whom I was estranged at the time due to her own struggles with mental health and addiction.
The reality is, if I had lived in a state that required me to get parental permission, I would not have been allowed to have an abortion. I would have been barred from having a basic medical service that allowed me to not only keep on track with my own goals and aspirations, but to follow through on my commitment to help my young brother with reaching his.
I think about what would have happened had I not been able to access an abortion. I would have found myself in a situation with not only my younger brother to feed, but an infant! There is simply no way I could have cared for us all, no way I could have taken time off my low-wage job or provided a baby with child care. It scares me to think about how my brother would have been impacted if this had been the situation. My biggest hope in the world at the time was for him to finish school and not worry about working, to just get to be a kid! If I had had a baby, my brother’s childhood that I was working nonstop to protect would have been over. I would have been forced to depend on him to help me.
This is why when we are fighting for access to abortion that it is for ABORTION ON DEMAND! Because every woman needs to be able to decide for herself, with no stipulations, restrictions or additional requirements if/when she wants to have a child. Every person deserves to have the final say over our own bodies! No one “knows better” than us!
–Marissa S., Albuquerque, NM
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