When I was 19 years old, I had an abortion. In the aftermath, I was overwhelmed with emotions on a deeper level than I had ever experienced. I felt helpless, I felt sorrow, I felt regret, I felt pain on every level, and I felt shame — but most of all, I felt scared. My decision to seek an abortion was a mistake, and the absolute last thing in the world that I wanted to do was talk about the gravest mistake I had ever made, especially to strangers.

If you read the Washington Post or watched CNN recently, you may have come across astounding headlines about a recent study positing that among post-abortive women, “84% had positive emotions or no emotions whatsoever about their abortion decision.” These claims are being reported with remarkably little skepticism, but suffice it to say I am very skeptical of the findings on multiple levels.