"Lack of access is an issue that affects all women, but in particular Latinas. They are more likely to be living in poverty than are their counterparts. And, especially in regards to Latinas and Latina immigrants, they are more likely to lack health insurance. In some cases, it can get as high as 56% percent lacking health insurance. Language barriers are another concern quite often: the doctors not speaking Spanish or people having to take a translator with them, that can create problems in the transfer of information.

I used to work at Planned Parenthood, and we would talk to some of the younger women about if they would know where to go for birth control, and if they would know where to go to obtain an abortion, and they had no idea what Planned Parenthood was or what we offered.

Younger women just take abortion for granted. They don't even bat an eye. It's not even something that they have to be consciously aware of, which to me is a little bit scary. On the other hand, it's great, because they're comforted by that freedom."

Ms. Gonzales is the outreach consultant for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Previously, she was the senior public affairs coordinator for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (PPRM), and was a board member for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, co-chair of the Diversities Committee at PPRM, and co-chair of the Education and Advocacy Committee for NARAL.

"I was raised in a very liberal Muslim family that is originally from Bangladesh. Abortion was something that just simply was never discussed. Growing up, no one sat me down and said, 'You know Sharbari, if you get pregnant you have options.' We didn't talk about abortion or even birth control for that matter because, of course, we were not even supposed to be having sex. So, when the time came and I had to make this very difficult decision, I was living in NYC. I was 23 years old, and I had started seeing the man who is actually my husband now, and I became pregnant, I gained a very personal understanding of what abortion and reproductive rights means. It means control over my body. It means having confidence that I have a choice in the event of an unwanted pregnancy. The comfort and assurance that came with knowing I could access a safe and legal abortion cannot be understated. Were I living in Bangladesh, my options would have been much different-and perhaps my health even jeopardized.

That was eight years ago. I have a little child now-but still do think about my decision. While I do not regret it, I have a much stronger appreciation of our right to safe and legal reproductive health. This is much bigger than my little incident. This has to do with thousands of people who don't have access; who don't have a choice.

Although it is interesting, in my situation as a young American woman who believes in the right to choose; it is not as if I wear this opinion on my sleeve. No one asks me, 'Did you ever have an abortion?' I mean people don't really ask you that, so you don't really have the opportunity to discuss having an abortion. But I think it is important for women to understand the experience of being able to have-to choose to have-an abortion. In my case, I guess I did sort of just assume it would be okay. This is the United States and the health care is supposed to be one of the best in the world. I had faith and I actually lucked out, I have to say how personable the people were and how tender and how thoughtful.

But I think about what my experience would be if I had become pregnant in Bangladesh. I might have been dead by now. The health care there is dubious at best. People in Bangladesh don't die of their actual surgeries, but from staph infections and complications resulting from the surgeries. I've heard of so many young women who had abortions in Bangladesh who just died, hemorrhaged, mostly from infections. So I think my situation would have been vastly different."