"I simply wasn't ready," says Renee Bracey Sherman when describing why she chose to have an abortion.
In a new video produced for Fusion's #NoFilter series, Sherman explains the thought process she went through before choosing to terminate a pregnancy -- and the opportunities making that choice has afforded her.
Sherman, a reproductive justice and storytelling activist, had an abortion when she was 19 years old. While the video shows how Sherman came to the decision to terminate her pregnancy, it also gives a broader look at her life and who she is as a person. Sherman says her “first and foremost identity" is a "cat lady," her parents raised her to see herself as an equal to her two brothers and she played the piano as a kid (even though she hated it).
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The best part of this video -- besides that it shows she made the best decision for herself at the time -- is that it reveals so much about Sherman's personality, family and upbringing, showing that she's so much more than her choice to have an abortion. She is a full human being with likes, dislikes, funny stories and a family that loves her. Sherman's choice to have an abortion was just one of many decisions she's made in her lifetime.
Storytelling is powerful when it comes to humanizing the issues we face as women every day. Abortion stories reveal that behind the decision to terminate a pregnancy is a woman, a human being -- someone complex with reasons that are all her own.
"I haven't once regretted it," says Sherman. "It allowed me to change paths. It was one of the best decisions of my life. And I'm happy."