I was 16 years old when I got pregnant by a boy I loved very much. Richard and I dated for a year, and then I got pregnant. Richard was a classmate of mine. We were very scared when we found out about my pregnancy, so we didn’t tell my parents anything. When my parents found out about it, they were just shocked.
Our family was considered exemplary. And I was the only daughter and did very well in school. Richard and I were minors, so it was our parents’ decision for us.
Both Richard and I did very well in school and so our parents dreamed that we would get in and graduate from good institutions so that we could have good careers. And a child would disrupt all those plans.
That’s why my mother forced me to have an abortion. But it was too late to get an abortion. After all, my parents found out that I was pregnant when I was almost six months pregnant. And that’s when my mom arranged for an induced delivery. And when I was 6, 5 months pregnant, I had an induced delivery. Everything went fine.
Then Richard and I went back to our normal lives. We kept seeing each other. We graduated from school, went to college, and a year later we got married. My parents didn’t bother us. And then I got pregnant. We were all very happy.
But it so happened that at six and a half months I started hemorrhaging. The boy was born small: only one and a half kilograms. And three hours after he was born, he died.
The doctors couldn’t stop the bleeding and removed my uterus. I could never have children again. My mother comes to see me at the hospital and says she’s very sorry she made me have an abortion years ago. But that doesn’t make me feel any better.
The past cannot be undone, and past mistakes cannot be undone. Now I’ll never be able to be a mother again and I’ll never have children. I don’t know if Richard and I can hold on to our marriage and be happy. After all, children are so important to a normal family.
