When Jessica Valenti was pregnant with her little girl, she developed a life-threatening illness, the only cure for which was "not to be pregnant".
"These are decisions for families to make, not politicians"
Luckily Jessica was so far along that she didn't need to have an abortion. her baby daughter Layla was delivered via emergency C-section at 28 weeks.
She described the scene in The Guardian, saying: "When I finally saw my daughter, she was just two pounds – all skin and bones and transparent skin. It was horrible.
"[But] Now, at four years old, Layla is healthy, happy and has grown out of any lasting preemie problems.
"And I'm the happy mother of a baby born at 28 weeks."
But, despite this, Jessica has found that her pregnancy experience has made her more pro-choice than ever before.
She explains: "I know first-hand what it's like to have a pregnancy threaten your life, and how quickly – and without warning – things can go wrong."
What anti-choicers never understand, she says, is that "pregnancy, abortion and birth" are "too complicated" to assign strict rules to.
"Parents facing pregnancies with a fetus too sick to live, parents who must make awful decisions about the quality of life they would want for their child – these parents should not have to jump through legal hoops.
"Only 1.5% of women who have abortions even have them after 20 weeks, and whatever the reasons they need those abortions, their choices are far too… personal."
She adds, compellingly: "These are decisions for families to make, not politicians."
The Abortion Act 1967 was reviewed in parliament in 2008, when a debate was held over whether the limit should be reduced from 24 to either 22 or 20 weeks but no changes were made.
And, while many believe that the help that can be offered to premature babies means that the limit should be lowered, Jessica insists that it is a decision for the mother to make, not the government.
She emotionally concludes: "It's not often that I look back on photos of Layla while she was in the NICU – it's too painful. But when I do, she doesn't look like a baby.
"She looks, well, like a foetus. Of course, my husband and I never called her that – from the moment the stick read PREGNANT, until 28 weeks later, when she came out, tiny and fragile, we called her our "baby". This, too, is not inconsistent with being pro-choice.
"But nothing is truly consistent about being pregnant or having a baby. Nothing is simple, nothing is clear-cut. And it doesn't have to be."
Do you agree - should every women have the right to choose? Or do you think the legal limit for abortion should be lowered? Let us know in the Comments Box below.