AS A MOTHER, I WANT WHAT’S BEST FOR MY FAMILY
As a Mother, I Want What’s Best for My Family. That’s Why I Got an Abortion
Rewire News Group - Jan. 5, 2022
We put our toddler to bed and cozied up alongside the fireplace illuminating our small trailer in the woods. If you aren’t ready to have another child, then we have to change what we are doing. You can’t keep coming inside of me. He had protested the idea of a vasectomy (too emasculating). I tried an IUD, but the pain and heavy bleeding following its insertion led to its removal. My period had been irregular since giving birth, and between taking care of a toddler and healing from postpartum depression, I was never successful at tracking my cycle.
He continued to come inside of me, and we spent nights running off lists of names for a second child. I took this as an explicit, albeit unsaid, declaration of intent. I never pushed back on his equation of a vasectomy with loss of masculinity. I was not aware of how privileged and centered he was in the spaces he walked through in life as well as within our relationship. I never imagined that his pleasure would be prioritized over my reproductive, emotional, and mental well-being.
