I found a wonderful blog, The Erstwhile Conservative, while searching for posts on the Egyptian Revolution. I swear to God, it was looking in a mirror with a guy staring back at me. When I read his post, Why I Have to Repent, it blew me away.

Like him, I came from a very Conservative Christian background. He is now a self-professed, “unapologetic skeptic of Conservative thinking.” In that post, he shared writings from those Conservative days. Wow. Talk about purging one’s soul.

So here goes nothing.

I was anti-choice. So much so that I joined a protest at an abortion clinic when I was 17.

God, that was hard to write.

Going to college exposed me to radically different thinking. Polar opposites of the views of my upbringing and the Christian high school I attended. I was forced to listen to them, while examining my own.

Enter required reading for one of my classes: The Handmaid’s Tale. This dystopian novel was about a future where women are the property of an all-male theocratic government. This book rocked my world. It made me think. Really think. Is a future like this possible? Can women be nothing more than walking uteri?

It wasn’t hard for me to see the similarities between the anti-choice movement and this nightmare scenario. Women would have no say in what happens to their bodies. This was my turning point.

I was now pro-choice. I learned that pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. The woman has the right to choose to carry to term or have an abortion. You, me, and the government should not have a say so. We aren’t the ones pregnant. They are.

I hate being called pro-abortion, as I said in my post, Infanticide is not a Synonym of Abortion. Why? It’s simply not true.

Years after my “switch,” a family member of mine became pregnant (unplanned). She asked me what she should do. This is what I said, “This decision is completely up to you. I’m not going to love you more or less, whatever you decide. But if it were me, I would keep it. You will have our total support – financial, emotional, all of it. You’re family. And you know you can count on us.”

She was very lucky. She had the support of her family. What about those women who don’t? What if they can’t support a child? They know their situation the best. The decision is theirs.

So there it is. My confession. I was anti-choice. I am now pro-choice.

I AM NOT, NEVER HAVE BEEN, AND NEVER WILL BE PRO-ABORTION.

What did my family member choose? Her daughter turns 13 in September.