Kerry Anne King 

Because after working as a labor nurse, I know abortion saves lives

I want a president who understands that abortion is a difficult decision that saves women’s lives.

When I was young, I opposed abortion. But after years of working as both a labor and delivery nurse and as a mental health counselor, I’m decidedly pro-choice, and here’s why.

I’ve witnessed a fourteen-year-old girl laboring alone, without the support of family or friends. I’ve seen a young girl bring her teddy bear into the hospital to give her comfort while she went through the agony of labor. I’ve been present at the births of babies with defects incompatible with life.

I’ve cared for devastated women who very much wanted babies who had died in the womb. They were given the mercy of drugs to induce immediate delivery—a procedure that is now illegal in several states. I listened to women wrestle with the knowledge that an unplanned pregnancy meant they could no longer work or care for the children they already had. Abortion wasn’t something they wanted—but felt like the only viable option.

I believe that no woman should have to carry a dead baby in her uterus because a valid medical procedure is illegal. No victim of rape or domestic violence should be forced to carry and give birth to the perpetrator’s baby. No woman should be forced to continue a pregnancy that puts her own life at risk. No child should be forced to give birth to a child. 

For all of these reasons, I am pro-choice—and want a president who supports women’s right to make difficult decisions based on their own unique situations.

Kerry Anne King is the author of Whisper Me This and A Borrowed Life.