“Telling my mother isn’t an option at all. Not now. Not when I turn eighteen. Not ever.”
I first learned about the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022 while on the phone with a good friend shortly after the news broke. At the time, I lived in New York, a state with favorable access to abortion, and my friend lived in Georgia, a state with a six-week abortion ban. That day felt like a true reversal of time—a direct threat to access to healthcare, and yet another way for our country to deny an individual the right to make choices that are best for our bodies.
Now, in the year 2025, the right to choose is still under attack. It is my hope that years from now, we’ll have progressed as a country when it comes to reproductive autonomy and destigmatizing abortion care. I hope that years from now, a student picks up this book and reads about the challenges that the book’s main character Truth Bangura faces and goes, “Is that really how it was back then?”
Truth Is is a pro-choice novel in every sense of the phrase. Truth’s choice to move forward with an abortion is made early on in the novel and the majority of the book focuses on her life and her choices after her decision. For adults who engage with Truth’s story, I want us to consider the limitations we sometimes unknowingly put on young people. I want us to consider the heights young people could reach if they were granted opportunities and community support, the way Truth ultimately does in the novel.
For young people who read Truth Is, it is important to me that you know, like Truth’s poetry, life is filled with many deliberate choices and a whole lot of revision. A lot of questions, and heartbreak. But a lot of gain and victories too. You have the power to make new decisions every day and can always choose to revise and write a new story. If you find yourself wrestling with some of the doubts Truth does, many of which I wrestled with as a high school student, I want you to know that I believe in you, and I believe your future is bright.
Editor’s note: At-home abortions via medication abortion are legal, safe and available in all 50 states. The organization Plan C has a comprehensive guide to finding abortion pills on their website, which is continually updated and has all the latest information on where to find abortion pills from anywhere in the U.S.
The following is an excerpt, written in verse, from Hannah V. Sawyerr’s novel Truth Is, a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, published Sept. 23, 2025.
Google Search History—October 12
how much does giving birth cost
how much does giving birth hurt
what is the adoption process
how much is an abortion without using your parent’s insurance
what exactly is Roe v Wade
why did they overturn Roe v Wade
how to make an appointment at the clinic without your mom
how to make an appointment at the clinic without your mom’s permission
how to make an appointment at the clinic without your mom’s permission pregnant
clinics near me
clinics near me Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
What Sex Ed Taught Me
Sex ed was taught by my ninth-grade gym teacher—
a sixty-year-old white man
who got visibly uncomfortable saying the words
penis or vagina.
But if it weren’t for sex ed
I wouldn’t know a lot of clinics are free or low cost
& confidential too.
I called six clinics in Philly
& only one of them had an opening to see me today—
45 minutes away from home by bus.
What Sex Ed Didn’t Teach Me
Too bad sex ed didn’t teach about
the number of anti-abortion protestors
camped out the building—
With signs that say shit like:
STOP ABORTION NOW
LET GOD PLAN PARENTHOOD
&
REAL WOMEN PROTECT BABIES
As if planned parenthood is only for women.
As if planned parenthood is only for abortions.
As if it’s any of their business even if it was.
Almost Missed It
I walk into the clinic
walk past the protestor who steps too close to me
reject the flyer in her hand & the bullshit out her mouth
pay her and every protestor
none of the attention they beg for.
The clinic is tucked away on the corner of the block
& if it weren’t for all the no life protestors camped outside
you might just miss it. I reach for my phone
begin texting Zariah like you wouldn’t believe this shit
and put my phone right back in my pocket
when I remember she doesn’t know I’m here.
She and I never talk about any options
other than what she assumes I’ll choose
Zariah’s always talking about babies being blessings
In her mind I only have one option—
but my Google search history,
the abortion brochure in the waiting room—
and my heart—tell me otherwise.
I Sign in at the Front Desk
The first time signing in without my mother at any medical facility.
Take my seat next to a couple holding hands on my left
& what looks like a mother a few years older than me on my right
I am one of few people here alone
The mother smiles at me and I smile back
half sorry for staring half thank you for knowing I needed that
After spending half my morning vomiting in secret,
I almost told my mom until I replayed her comments:
You didn’t open up your legs for some boy, did you?
I fill out the intake form—
& google words on my phone
for questions I’m too embarrassed to admit I don’t fully understand
I almost finish when I reread the words: Emergency Contact
Run through the options I have in my head:
& choose the option least likely to pick up:
Emergency Contact: Theodore Clark (Dad)
I’m Called In
by a middle-aged, brown-skinned woman
hair tied back in a tight bun.
Dr. Cherelle she says her name is.
I follow her out of the waiting room
& she smiles at me
warm wide & inviting
& while it may not make my fears disappear
It feels a lot like someone saying
Everything will be okay.
What the Nurse Confirms:
- Via pregnancy test: I’m pregnant.
- Via ultra-sound: I’m nine weeks along.
- Some states have stricter laws regarding abortions than others—Pennsylvania’s laws aren’t as abortion friendly as others, but they aren’t as extreme as others either.
- Mifepristone and misoprostol are the names of the medication used for a medication abortion—commonly known as the abortion pill.
- Since I’m less than eleven weeks along I have the option of taking the abortion pill.
- The abortion pill on average is several hundred dollars less expensive than an in-clinic abortion.
- The abortion pill becomes less effective the longer you wait to take it.
Five Hundred
Dr. Cherelle tells me,
without insurance
a medication abortion
would cost just about
five hundred dollars.
Dr. Cherelle tells me,
if I move forward,
a medication abortion would
be my least expensive option &
some orgs help with costs.
Dr. Cherelle tells me,
all of these things
are true for seventeen-year-olds
in the state of Pennsylvania—
with parental consent.
I Tell Dr. Cherelle
waiting until my eighteenth birthday
would mean a medication abortion
would no longer be an option for me
& telling my mother isn’t an option at all—
Not now. Not when I turn eighteen. Not ever.
Dr. Cherelle Finally Says
I can choose between the following:
- Get my mother’s consent
- Get a courts approval to bypass my mother’s consent
- Wait until my eighteenth birthday
But I already know exactly what I want.
And my choice is:
- None of the above
Editor’s note: In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. A series from Ms., Our Abortion Stories chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls.
The fall of Roe will continue to strain abortion access nationwide. We cannot, we must not lose the right to safe and accessible abortion or access to birth control. Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.
Great Job Hannah V. Sawyerr & the Team @ Ms. Magazine Source link for sharing this story.
