Thread by @paolamendoza

A thread about abortion:

My mother is #OneInFour women who has had an #abortion. Her abortion story is also my story, which is why I am sharing it now.

My mom, brother (6 yrs old) + I (3 yrs old) came to the USA to be reunited w my father who had come a few months earlier.

A typical immigrant story. We left behind all of our family to start a new life in the USA.

Our story stops being typical the morning my father told my mom he was going to work and he never came back. My father abandoned us with no money, no family, no education + no English.

My mom did what millions of mothers have done before her, she made miracles happen every day. She found food when there was none, she found a home on a park bench when we got kicked out of our apartment, she made the darkest moments of our lives exude love and hope.

What I didn’t know at the age of 3 was that a few weeks after my father left us, my mom found out she was pregnant. She was pregnant during the scariest time in her life. We were homeless, barely getting enough food to eat and now she had to contend with another baby.

My mother had been raised in a strict Catholic household. Up until that moment an abortion was completely out of the question. But my mother knew that if she wanted my brother and I to be able to survive in this new country she could not have another baby.

My mother made the choice to have an abortion so that my brother and I could have a chance at the future she dreamed for us. My mother has never once regretted her decision. She knows that she made the right choice for her and her family.

I am eternally grateful that my mother was able to choose to have a safe abortion during the most challenging time in her life. Without her right to choose I am not sure where I would have ended up.

My mother’s story is why I will fight for every woman to have the right to choose what she wants to do with her body.

#OneInFour