Abortion, Part 1: Toothpick Girl

Abortion, Part 1: Toothpick Girl

I was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the early 1970s after I returned to the States from South Vietnam. Abortions were legal in only California and New York at that time. Along with a group of friends, we accompanied a woman who was scheduled to receive an abortion. She is not my story. That part will remain private.

My story here is about a little girl I saw at the clinic. She must have been twelve years old and skinny as a toothpick. Incredibly, that girl was also there for an abortion. I have no idea why she was pregnant since she was a complete stranger to me. But there she was. I realized then there must be many thousands of girls like her across the United States and the entire world who are pregnant. In many places, including the US, they would be forced to marry.

I remember the girl fainting. She was helped out by staff members. My memory is vague, but make no question about it, she was the one getting an abortion.

What sort of man or woman tells a little girl like that she must carry her unwanted pregnancy to full term? Yet that is what is lawmakers are trying to do once again here in the US. Pregnant young women who are still children are left with choices that are totally unacceptable: marry and have the baby or don't get married and still have the baby. Then what? Give it up for adoption?

There is no way I intend to go back to those days. This is a time to make sure we are vigilant.