After leaving home at 17, I was sleeping on beaches and in people’s truck beds, thinking I was making it on my own. 

Penniless, phoneless, and not even having an ID because I’d left it all at home in my stand for independence, I eventually found someone to take me in. Unfortunately, it connected me with some bad people and fueled my use of alcohol and drugs. I would drink all day, go to sleep, get up, and drink again. I didn’t have anything to ground me, and I didn’t care enough about my life to get it back on track.  

I was shocked when a drug dealer I knew demanded I take a pregnancy test. A blurry night when I blacked out in his car and woke up at the house where I was staying came to mind. I was even more shocked when the pregnancy test was positive.  

The dealer insisted I get an abortion, saying, “I am not going to go to jail for this.” He even tried to abduct me and wreck his car with us in it to “get rid of the problem.” 

But part of me felt that this pregnancy was an opportunity to get my life back on track, and if I didn’t take this opportunity, I wouldn’t get another one.  

The dealer began harassing me nonstop, and I began to feel like I was never going to be able to escape him unless I had an abortion. I ended up turning to an abortion facility for help. I genuinely thought they helped parents and pregnant women. I soon learned that is not the case. The woman on the phone was so unbelievably cold to me and made me feel like she was judging me because of my age and situation.  

When I began to have some spotting, I decided to look up “free ultrasounds near me,” and that’s when I found the Community Pregnancy Clinic in Sarasota. In great contrast to the abortion facility, the woman who answered the phone was comforting and put me at ease.

When I later went in for the ultrasound appointment, a woman at the clinic sat with me for an hour and a half, letting me talk about everything that had happened. She wasn’t judgmental at all. In fact, she even prayed over me. It was the opposite of what I had experienced when I called the abortion facility.  

When I was ready, she took me back for the ultrasound, and as soon as I heard the heartbeat, I knew I couldn’t give up on this baby.  

After that, the center called me every week to check on me. The workers would ask how the baby was doing and if there was anything I needed. They also encouraged me to talk to my parents about what was happening.  

If I didn’t answer one week, my phone would blow up with calls from the clinic making sure I was OK. I can say with 100 percent confidence that I and my son would not be here if not for the center checking in on me every week.  

They would offer to drive supplies to me if I couldn’t pick it up on my own. If there was something they couldn’t provide, they would direct me to somewhere that could. 

Their support wasn’t just material either. The woman at the clinic encouraged me to finish high school, and with her support, I finished my junior and senior classes in one year, graduating a year earlier than my peers. The center even offered to help me find a job and fill out insurance paperwork. They gave me support in every aspect of my life.  

The claim that pregnancy resource centers manipulate and abandon women is so hurtful because the people there were the only ones who did not abandon me. I am now doing more with my life and am happier than I ever would have been if I had not gotten pregnant.  

My son is now almost 1 year old. He is so brave, and I see all the good parts of myself in him. He is so smart and advanced for his age. He loves life, being in the water, and playing with his grandparents.

I never would have experienced any of that if I had fallen for the manipulation that my life was somehow lessened by having a child after an assault at such a young age.

Every day I strive to show my son that he is a blessing in my life and that he did not hold me back. Instead, he pushes me forward. Every day I live for him. Young women in similar situations deserve to know that their world will not be destroyed if they have a baby; it will keep spinning, and it is better than you can imagine. 

Marcia Ortiz is a mother in Florida.