Catamount Tavern News Service, Chicago, IL

While in my mid-twenties, “I had an abortion,” joining the statistical thirty-six percent of women in the United States who have terminated pregnancies. Unlike many who share in this statistic, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a supportive group of friends but, initially, it felt as if I didn’t or couldn’t share my experience with anyone else - even the thirty-six percent.

At the time, I stood at a loss: alone and uncertain of an experience that seemed to be lacking in meaning. Without sure footing, I could not have foreseen how a few common seeds, securely planted in the soil beneath my feet, would connect me to the cycle of life as well as the countless women before me who had cultivated herbs in the rows of their gardens or gathered errant growing plants of forest and field to terminate unfortunate pregnancies.