About 25 years ago, my girlfriend at the time became pregnant. We were both in college at the time. The idea of abortion never even crossed my mind. I reassured her that we would find ways to make things work. That my parents would help us support and take care of the child while we finished school. Her mom died during her childbirth, and she was an only child raised by her dad. Not sure how supportive he would have been. As the months went by, I continued to plan for the baby, and after a period of that time I noticed that my girlfriend seemed to be less interested in all of it. So I sat her down and asked her what was wrong. She told me that she had lost the baby. I was disappointed, and she made it seem like it was a miscarriage. A while after that her cousin told me that my girlfriend had an abortion, and that she had already had two other abortions when she was in high school. I could not believe it. When I confronted her about it, she confessed. I was devastated, and felt betrayed. It took two of us to make that child, and I felt it was just as much mine as hers. I was under the assumption at the time that both parents were needed to consent to an abortion, but found out that fathers have no rights in the matter by law. I feel that is a travesty, that fathers should have rights as well. I asked her how she could betray me and kill our child without even talking about it first. She had little to say,only that she did not want to be inconvenienced with a child while in school, and some fears of childbirth because of her moms death. Our relationship did not last long after that, but we remained civil have kept in touch over the years. She has three children now with her husband. I have two sons and three daughters with my wife. When holding my children for the first time, I would think of my aborted child, and that I never had the chance to hold it. Never had the chance to watch it grow up, that it never had the chance to live and experience life. I still wonder who that child would have been. What dreams and aspirations it would have had, what kind of person it would have grown up to be. I can imagine, but never know, because it was denied its life. I am writing this because I want people to know that the fathers are also affected by abortion. That I feel we should have a say and rights in determining whether or not a pregnancy should be terminated. The unborn child is just as much flesh and blood of the father as it is the mother. We are affected by abortion as well.