Hope, Not Fear. What Women Need in 2024.

No woman should ever have to make a choice out of fear. Unfortunately, the current dialogue surrounding abortion and ‘choice’ is entirely centered on fear. 

Fear that a woman’s or girl’s future will be limited if she chooses life. Fear of the stigma accompanying a teen pregnancy. Fear of making ends meet and finding childcare, employment, housing and so on.

I felt these fears keenly as a 17-year-old high school student who discovered she was pregnant. If it weren’t for the loving heroes at a Massachusetts pregnancy care center, I might have felt forced to choose abortion out of fear. 

Instead, the love, support, and resources they provided enabled me to choose life for my son.

When I discovered I was pregnant in 2007, I thought I was going to lose everything. I was a national honor student, class president, and captain of both the varsity softball and soccer teams. I worked long grueling hours to achieve a perfect grade point average, and I was taking challenging AP courses with high hopes for my future. 

My positive pregnancy test caused these dreams to come tumbling down. I refused to believe I was pregnant and spent weeks in denial despite many pregnancy tests confirming it. 

Ultimately my mother learned that I was pregnant. Rather than condemning me or fueling my fears, she immediately stepped up to find resources and support. She was there for me no matter what. To this day, I don’t think she realizes how crucial her support was to calm my fears and help me make a fully informed choice.

My mom and I turned to a local pregnancy care center.  I also saw an OB/GYN where I learned that I was four months along. There, I heard my son’s heartbeat for the first time.

Suddenly, nothing else mattered. 

As the light thud of my son’s precious heartbeat echoed back to me, I knew that this was a life worth keeping. I knew my decision could only involve two outcomes: adoption or motherhood.

I chose motherhood.

But I quickly discovered that women are only celebrated for “choice” when it involves abortion. I faced severe bullying, judgment, and shame from my peers. People told me that I was throwing my life away and that I should choose abortion. Things got so bad that towards the end of my junior year I had to finish multiple classes with my teachers in the library to avoid classmates. 

Yet through it all, I didn’t regret choosing life. My mom and the women at the pregnancy care center were there for me every step of the way, helping me with birth classes, resources and a support network of other young moms. The center even stepped up to help my mom during this time so that she would be well equipped to support me. 

It gave us hope when no one else did. They removed every thorn they could from my path, enabling me to have the freedom to pursue my choice to give my son life. 

Yet the judgment and shame I continued to receive from so many people who claim to champion “women’s choice” was deafening. Rather than making me second-guess my decision, it allowed me to empathize with the countless women who are pressured into abortion through coercion or fear. 

In fact, after I delivered my son, some of my classmates opened up to me that they’d had abortions. Seeing my situation made them regret their decisions, which were forced upon them and driven by the same fears that I’d once faced. 

My heart broke for them. Perhaps if they’d known about the resources and help I received at the pregnancy care center, they would have been able to make a different decision.

Today, I can’t imagine my life without my now 17-year-old son Brayden. He is my constant source of joy. He is an avid soccer and flag football player, who loves to surf and dive with his mamma when he isn’t at his lifeguarding job. It’s surreal to realize that next year he heads off to college. 

And rather than ruining my dreams, his life motivated me to work harder than ever. I graduated from high school, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and biotechnology from UMass, Lowell and today I work in the life science industry. 

Together, we are a living testimony to the lifesaving work and choices that Massachusetts pregnancy care centers offer young girls and families in need. The women from the center that helped us remain a crucial part of our lives 17 years later.

Pregnancy centers aren’t political, and they shouldn’t be attacked by politicians. Instead, our state and its elected leaders must do better for the next generation of women and young girls by helping them if they face an unexpected pregnancy, rather than telling them abortion is their only option. This starts by supporting, rather than villainizing, the pregnancy care centers and the many women around the Commonwealth who rely on this network to choose life.  

Women today need hope, not fear.

Brittany Valliere is a mother who lives and works in Massachusetts.