Getting an abortion so you don't completely derail and ruin your life is a valid reason.
I don't usually like to reveal anything more than generic details about myself online for obvious reasons, but
recent events and a resulting conversation with an ex have been on my mind a lot lately.
I grew up being nominally Pro-Life, especially so as I first got politically active as a teenager, but slowly this faded and I became far more nuanced on the issue while in college; different crowds and some friends having pregnancy scares, etc. I didn't think it should be glorified or anything other than a last resort, but my views evolved. Fast forward a bit and I'm dating this girl after leaving college, and along comes a pregnancy scare of my own for the first time in my life. I'm terrified at this point, and to my now eternal shame and guilt, I suggested abortion. Thank God for the wisdom of my ex, because she was able to be really profound over the course of this situation and make me realize how selfish I was being. She wasn't opposed to it in general, but she did make the point to me that because of health conditions of her own, she never thought she would be able to get pregnant and had always wanted a baby. If she was actually pregnant, this might be her only chance to be a mother.
I thought a lot on that over the course of the next few days and as we had more conversations. Here I was being terrified to actually have to raise a baby with all that implied for my life, and then there was her rejoicing in a way that she might get a blessing she thought she never would. It really drove home to me a point that I've since come to fully embrace, in that when it comes to your children-and they are even when they're in the womb-your life no longer matters first. That may sound harsh to some but I don't care, that baby in the womb is yours and it is your responsibility now. It didn't ask to be put there and it is only there because of your own actions; in my case, as with the overwhelmingly majority who end up in the same situation, it was because we didn't contraception. Having been in the hot seat, I can understand the effects of the initial fear and panic, so I can empathize with those going through it, but that doesn't change me from the conclusion I came to. Whereas I was freaking out about my future, her calmness really made me realize that I needed to man up and be prepared to be a father, to accept the consequences of my actions and do what I knew to be morally right. That baby was innocent and it deserved the chance to live a life too.
Ultimately, one night while we were together, I told her that no matter what I would support her and would take care of my baby. It was innocent and it deserved life, it wasn't my right to take it was my thinking. A few days later, we found out it was a false alarm, so I never did have to go into the responsibility I previously feared, but nowadays I honestly think it was God giving me a life lesson. If you take anything from this story, I hope it's the realization that life matters no matter what.