What Is It Like to Have a Medication Abortion? 5 People Share Their Stories

I went through Planned Parenthood, and while they do great work, they also gave me a phone number to call if I experienced any worrisome complications, and then it turned out that number wasn’t connected. Honestly, I wish there was a resource I could have called upon in order to explore my surgical options a little bit more.”

Amy, 28, she/her

“I guess I could have had a surgical abortion. I didn’t even think about that. I think there’s a lot of stigma about the process, but to me, the medication option seemed like what you do earlier in the pregnancy, whereas the surgery seemed far more invasive. I’m really vehemently pro-abortion, and my experience is part of that; when I was realized I was pregnant, I didn’t tell the person who was the other half of the equation. I knew that it would be potentially a situation where our views differed, so I was like, I’m not sharing this information. I felt really ill, though, because it’s not easy to be pregnant, right? I remember feeling so tired and unable to go running, and even eight weeks along, you can feel the pregnancy progressing and growing. I had this horrible feeling of, you know, I don’t want to be pregnant.

When I went to the clinic, I was so freaked out; I was like, Oh, my God, there are going to be picketing Christians throwing insults at me. Ultimately, though, there was nobody protesting. I remember the waiting being nerve-wracking, because I had to come back to the clinic the next day. They ask you all these questions, and I remember them being like, with some trepidation, ‘Are you sure that this is what you have to do?’ I think they have to ask something like that, and I was so enthusiastic, like, maybe inappropriately enthusiastic for the level of gravity that was coming at me. The process of taking the medication was like a horrible, extremely bad period, but they do prepare you pretty well. I knew what to do, but I had no idea what my housemate would have thought was happening at the time.

Afterward, I remember immediately feeling so much lighter, so much safer, and so relieved and free. I think a lot of people have a grief experience, or they feel really torn about [having an abortion] or harmed by it, and I get that, but I think I had a very different experience. It was really painful, but in a way that a bad period is painful; in comparison to being pregnant and being fatigued and the pain of an actual pregnancy growing inside you, it was a no-brainer. It was such a relief to be like, I’m not forced into this situation anymore.”