Editor's Note: The Independent has agreed to keep the identity of the source in the following article confidential. She has given a false name, "Audrey."
Admittedly, there is not much Audrey remembers about the meeting she and her boyfriend had with the family planning counselor 13 years ago. What she does remember, she remembers vividly.
She was told, she said, that there were three ways to deal with her unplanned pregnancy.
Parenting. Adoption. Abortion.
After that, the only thing she remembers is her boyfriend saying he "felt trapped by the pregnancy."
Faced with the difficult decision, Audrey felt she had to make the choice alone. Her boyfriend, she thought, would not support her in raising the child.
She weighed her options. She thought about what would be best.
In the end, she chose to terminate the pregnancy.
"I had plans and dreams, and it didn't seem to fit into my plans to have another child," Audrey said. "That's why I made the choice at the time."
At 16, Audrey was pregnant with her first child, a child she chose to raise on her own. Another child, she thought, might be too much to handle.
"I thought it would be easy," Audrey said. "I bought into the lie that once you made the choice, you wouldn't have to deal with it."
Dealing was something Audrey had to do immediately. The day she had the abortion, she said she cried in the clinic room.
There, in front of the doctor and the nursing staff, she sobbed uncontrollably.
"I didn't really want to do it," Audrey said, "but I didn't say anything."
Over the years, the pain, shame and confusion that surrounded her abortion became almost undetectable, she said. Audrey found ways to build protective walls around her emotions. She taught herself not to cry. She taught herself to ignore the feelings of guilt and shame.
"Outwardly, you can seem OK," Audrey said. "But inwardly, there is a whole different story going on."
It wasn't until she contacted the PSC (Pregnancy Support Center) that she finally found peace. It was there that she met Fern Buzinski, facilitator of PeACE (Post Abortion Counseling and Education) - a support group offered through the center.
Buzinski told Audrey she had been in the same position.
"Having experienced two abortions in the '70s, I went through the center and found healing and help," Buzinski said. "I wanted to help other women work through the guilt, embarrassment, shame and all the issues associated with abortion."
Over the years, Buzinski has helped a number of area women come to terms with the emotions, stresses and confusions that are common among women after an abortion. There is a regular emotional pattern that post-abortive women follow.
Initially, especially for teens, there is great sense of relief, she said.
"The first response is relief - relief that the problem is solved," Buzinski said. "(Women) want to bask in that relief as long as they can."
According to Buzinski, that sense of relief can last as long as 20 to 30 years. In many cases, women have said they never lose that sense of relief.
For other women, emotions usually catch up to them, Buzinski said.
At some point, she said, many women will experience great grief, depression, anger or guilt.
"I find that everyone is affected in some way," Buzinski said. "You don't just walk away from a trauma like abortion."
Audrey said an array of emotions surged through her daily for months and even years after her abortion. She cried often. There were days, she said, when all the tears she had would not drown the emptiness she felt.
"I was mad at my boyfriend for not stopping me," Audrey said. "There was a sense of despair, shame and hopelessness ... when I realized what I had done."
Marsha, a Medical Assistant Student with the Akron Women's Medical Group who did want to have her last name published, said that women can be unaffected by the decision to have an abortion. Many of them go on to live normal, healthy lives, she said.
"Basically, there are a lot more of urban legends that are out there," Marsha said. "We let (women) know you have to consider the pros and cons. You can't just do it without knowing. Everything has consequences, good and bad."
Since it was legalized in 1973, abortion has become a main-staple option for pregnant women of all ages, Buzinski said, and that trend continues today.
She cited statistics, saying 80 percent of teenage girls who have an abortion were influenced to do so by their mothers. Trends, she said, are showing that teens who have abortions have mothers and grandmothers who also had abortions.
"It's tending to be a generational-type influence," Buzinski said. "They say, 'I had an abortion when I was your age, and I recommend that you do it, too.'"