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Taylor had taken several home pregnancy tests, and every one had come back positive—yet she wanted more confirmation, something definitive. She went to a Planned Parenthood but they couldn’t see her that day, so she was pleasantly surprised to find a clinic across the street offering free tests and ultrasounds. She went inside.
They gave me a pamphlet on how birth control will kill you. It had all of the birth controls laid out, and said “Oh, this causes stroke and this causes this side effect,” and I was like, “That’s false, but okay.” Then I saw a poster on the wall with information about how abortion will definitely kill you. I finally realized I was at an anti-abortion clinic and thought: “Great. I need to get out of here before they realized that I’m very opposed to everything that they’re about.” So I ended up getting the information that I needed—the confirmation of pregnancy—to get signed up for WIC and Medicaid and all of that, and then I left.
Taylor (all names have been changed in this story to protect people’s privacy) wasn’t interested in having an abortion, anyway. Even though she described herself as “very pro-choice,” and even though it was an unplanned pregnancy, she felt bonded to the pregnancy right away. But she knew that parenting would be a lot of work, especially without a steady income or a trustworthy boyfriend. When she googled “help for single moms” in her home state, she was flooded with ads for adoption agencies. “The first three or four search results were all for agencies,” she said, “I was like, ‘Huh, that’s something I haven’t really considered.’” Curious, she clicked on the ads for more details, and was soon mesmerized by the compelling profiles of waiting families with their suburban homes, stay-at-home moms, extended families, graduate degrees, and disposable income.
As her pregnancy went on, things got harder and harder for Taylor. She was so desperately sick that she had to…
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