Planned Parenthood Saved Me

PP reassured me

One month when I was an uninsured 19 year-old college student, my period was a week late. I was too poor to even buy a pregnancy test, and the ob-gyn at the school clinic had been brusque and judgmental the last time I’d been in for a check-up, so I was too scared to go there for a test. I couldn’t afford an abortion and couldn’t face the thought of being shunned for an unwed pregnancy. I seriously considered suicide. One sleepless night I decided to email the local Planned Parenthood. I told them my “friend” thought she might be pregnant and couldn’t afford an abortion. Less than 24 hours later, I got an email from an employee there, saying that my friend could come get a free pregnancy test, and that if she needed an abortion they would help her get one regardless of financial resources. No matter what, they said, they would help. I felt so much safer, knowing that someone was on my side, and wouldn’t judge me. For the first time that week I was calm enough to leave the house and go to class. My period started that afternoon, so I never did need to go in, but I will always be grateful to PP for telling a terrified girl that someone was on her side.