WILMINGTON — RE: “Anti-abortion and pro-choice” [Essay, Oct. 30]:
Thank you for publishing this piece. Personal truth-telling is an important step toward creating a culture of compassion and thereby understanding, if not agreement and compliance.
At age 18, I, too, had an abortion. It was with the full understanding that I was terminating a soul that had come into me. It was the hardest decision and subsequent action I have ever made.
I spoke to women who thought nothing of using abortion as a type of normalized birth control. To my mind, this seemed horrifyingly, unconscionably irresponsible, and yet in the end the choice was the same.
I am grateful that I had this choice and that the pain and shame I felt was all my own and not foisted upon me by societal pressure.
Eight years later, I was ready to become a mother. What I want for our children is to have frank and open discussion; to embrace acceptance of sexuality and reproduction; and to count on the support and compassion that was given to me in my time of crisis.