In all of our clinics, when you go into our waiting and recovery rooms, you’ll see small journals placed around the room. These are for our patients. When I worked as a Patient Advocate in Austin, I realized that a woman’s appointment wasn’t only about her abortion. It was about her story.

Our CEO and founder likes to say that abortion makes you re-evaluate all of the BIG things – happiness, sex, life, religion and so on. This isn’t just an “abortion.” For some women, it’s a wake up call. For some women it’s an act of empowerment. For some women it’s an act of sacrifice, for their current children. And for some women it’s re-affirmation of their life’s goals. These entries are proof that there’s no one reason that women choose to have an abortion. Each woman has her own list of reasons that we trust and respect.

Our patients are conscientious, good, loving women, and their journal entries are concrete proof of that.

I’d like to share pieces of these entries on this blog, because I think it helps give these women a voice.

This is an entry written by one of our patients:

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“To all the staff: To everyone! Thank you so much for the excellent help. Yall could have been my sisters, dad and mom. I know that this decision was the best for me! I know that I wasn’t ready for this but later on in the future, I hope to be more prepared to bring something (my baby) so precious into this world to join me on my new experiences. This will be a lesson for me and now things will be smooth! Although many people think that this may be wrong, I know I’m not alone and it will all be OK. I’m a stronger person now and I will leave this place with a high-held chin! Again thanx so much staff! Everything was relaxing. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. My butterflies are all gone! “Let Your World Shine.” XOXOXOXO”

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