Apathy Jack writes:

Last year a student came to me in quite some distress. The Guidance Councillor was away, so she didn’t know how she was going to get at his supply of morning after pills. I gave her my cashflow card, and pointed her at the chemist down the road. She vigorously resisted, saying she couldn’t accept my money. I told her: “Look, either I pay for a morning after pill today, or I pay for an abortion in a month, and I know which one is cheaper.”

Well, it took more than a couple of months, as it turns out...

She called me because, having finished high school, she is in a new city where she doesn’t know anybody except the ex-boyfriend with whom she recently shared one uncharacteristically careless night.

She knew what had to be done right away, but this situation has confused her, made her forget certain things. Things like the fact that she knows her ex-boyfriend doesn’t love her anymore. Things like the fact that their relationship couldn’t work, and that she had come to terms with that.

She’s been drinking a lot recently.

She got talking to a woman in a bar and, as is her way, shared a bit too much. This Good Samaritan didn’t care for the idea of someone drinking while pregnant, talk of a termination notwithstanding, so beat the hell out of my girl under the noses of the bouncers, screaming “You deserve to die too!”

She had the abortion today, and rang me to make sure I wasn’t angry at her. She asked me over and over, because, she says, I always get angry when people get pregnant. I had to explain again and again that I’m never really angry, just sad.

You know, this ridiculous life of mine gets to me sometimes...