Alex, 25
I found out I was pregnant on New Year’s Day [2020]. That first week after I found out, my mind was all over the place, like, what do I want to do? Do I want another kid? I just moved to Mississippi recently and I have a three-year-old.“ I took the first pill about an hour after I got the package. I couldn’t miss another day of work so I took the second set of pills the next day around 6 pm, on the way to my son’s school.”
I took the first pill about an hour after I got the package. I couldn’t miss another day of work so I took the second set of pills the next day around 6 pm, on the way to my son’s school. I put them in my mouth and let them dissolve, and by the time I got to his school to pick him up I swallowed the rest. When I got home I had terrible cramps and threw up as soon as I walked through the door. For about four or five hours I was cramping really bad and I was in the fetal position on my bed. Then I sat on the toilet for about an hour. At some point I felt like I had passed a really big clot and I didn’t want to look, but after that the cramps started going away. I went to sleep and when I woke up the next morning I wasn’t nauseous anymore and I didn’t have any symptoms and I went to work.Did you end a pregnancy on your own? If you feel comfortable sharing your story, you can reach Marie Solis securely at** marie.solis@protonmail.com**.
Tara*, 28
I knew I was pregnant because I missed my period and I didn’t feel well. I took a pregnancy test and it was positive; I just knew right away I wasn’t going to keep it.I made an appointment at an abortion clinic to do the first ultrasound and it showed that I was five weeks along. But in [my state] you have to do abortion counseling, so that appointment was like $100. Then you have to make a second appointment to do the procedure or get the pill, and that was going to be around $500. I have insurance and my insurance actually covers abortion but there’s a deductible, so I was going to have to pay out of pocket because I hadn’t met my deductible.“I thought about paying my rent or car payment late, but those options just weren’t good enough for me.”
A, 28
I usually start my period at the beginning of the month. But I do have some months where if I’m super stressed out I’m a week or two late, so it’s something I’ve gotten used to. In December I was really busy with work so I was a little late, and I thought it was no big deal. But then I started feeling nauseous every day and my boobs were constantly sore, so I took a pregnancy test.I peed on the stick and within minutes it showed a line and then half a line [not two lines]. I thought, That’s weird, but I’m 100 percent positive I'm pregnant.I love kids—I have nieces and nephews—but I didn’t want my own. And even if I did choose to have kids, I knew it wasn’t the right time. So I knew immediately I was going to have an abortion; I didn’t really have to think about it. But I didn’t have insurance at the time. This was just before Christmas, and I knew I didn’t have four, five, $600 to spare. So I thought, How am I going to pay for this?I started googling “how much does an abortion cost?” At the time, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a medication abortion. Once I learned about it, I started looking up how to order abortion pills online. That’s when I came across Aid Access and found [the online forum] where I did most of my research about the site.“It took about three weeks for the pills to get to me. The waiting was the hardest part because I was still sick every day.”