Padma Lakshmi: When I Was 14, I Helped My Mom Get an Abortion. It Changed Me Forever.
I can’t believe that it’s 2023 and we’re still fighting for the same damn issue that my mother’s generation fought for: bodily autonomy. But it was a pivotal experience I had as a teenager, supporting my mother as she exercised her own right to choose, that has always reminded me why we have to keep fighting.
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When I was 14 years old, my mom discovered she was pregnant. It was one test result in a folder full of test results: she was in the hospital, battered, recovering from a severe car accident—the same one that gave me the scar on my arm. Driving home from the Hindu temple in Malibu, our car was thrown off the road, falling 40 feet down an embankment. It took nearly 2 hours of sawing through trees and metal to rescue us.
My mom, step-dad, and I all suffered from life-altering injuries, but my mom was the worst off: half her rib cage, her arm, and her hand were broken, her sternum was severed, and her heart was under massive strain from a cardiac contusion. Both my parents were looking at months-long recovery periods where they’d have to stay home from work without pay to regain mobility, on top of a mountain of medical bills.
This was the state she was in when she learned of her pregnancy.
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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/padma-lakshmi-14-helped-mom-184200677.html
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