No Choice: An Air Force Member Learned of Her Pregnancy Right Before Deployment

A new video series published on BillMoyers.com titled “No Choice” highlights the abortion stories of eight women through their emotional testimonies. The videos highlight the history of abortion rights in the United States, the impact of this struggle on the lives of women, especially those holding marginalized identities, and contextualize these stories in light of our volatile political climate, which threatens reproductive rights and Roe v. Wade.

In 2009 as Holly Alvarado was getting ready to leave for a tour of duty in Iraq, she learned she was pregnant. "I kept thinking I was letting my team down," she says. She wanted to end the pregnancy and deploy with her team, but a federal law restricting abortions prevented her from getting an abortion from a military doctor. With little money or resources, she ended up driving four hours and living out of her car just to get the procedure.

Watch the video below.

[vimeo_embed https://player.vimeo.com/video/242627786?color=9f0b0b&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0 expand=1]

No Choice: Holly Alvarado from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.