Pray for Norma.
Pray for Norma.
I was 19 and pregnant by my live-in boyfriend, 10 years older than me. He said he would leave if I kept the baby. I felt my body transforming, my tummy getting round, my breasts changing. Planned Parenthood, the only place I knew to go, said, "Your pregnancy test is positive, but 'positive' is all in your perspective, isn't it?" They figured I was 8 weeks pregnant, but later said I was further along than what they had guessed. They assured me it was just a blob of tissue, confirming what I had been taught in health class at school. I wanted to have children, and I was assured by the counselors that I could always have a baby later, when I was 'ready' for one. I chose abortion knowing nothing of what it was other than a way to keep my boyfriend. He brought me to the abortion clinic and paid for the abortion.
One year later I had to have an ovary and fallopian tube removed because of a cyst "the size of a baby's head," according to the doctor. It had formed around "pieces of hair, like eyebrows, and skin." A year after that I became pregnant again. Because of the scar tissue left behind by the abortion and subsequent cyst, my baby was trapped in my one remaining fallopian tube. I had married the boyfriend by this time, but he still didn't want the baby. Without knowing this pregnancy was 'eptopic' I decided to carry to term, despite my husband's objections. The doctor didn't diagnose the problem until 10 weeks into the pregnancy, when I was in the emergency room puking my guts out. The baby had to be removed to save my life.
I am now completely sterile.
