This was in my inbox this morning. The reader asked to remain anonymous.

I saw your post ago saying you’d received what you needed for the abortion and would be donating any extra and I’d like to throw in my two cents— donate it to the Fund Abortion Now Network. It’s such an amazing program. It literally saved me and I donate to it every opportunity I have now!

I got pregnant at 18 and put off getting a test for a couple weeks after I thought so because I was young and dumb. I went to a health care clinic for a pregnancy test. They told me I was five/six weeks along. My boyfriend and I talked about it and we knew an abortion was the only answer because neither of us had money saved up, worked much and still lived with our families.

The next day, we went to our bosses and begged for more hours as we were only working around 10 hours a week at minimum wage (slightly over $7). Due to overstaffing and both of us being new to our jobs, we were lucky to get 15 hours. We saved every penny we could (we both have to pay our own insurance and help with groceries), and it took a month and a half to get what we were told we’d need ($900) for the procedure.

I went back to that clinic and the people were extremely rude to me this time. They kept going on and on about how abortions are cruel and awful and I was a bad person for wanting to do that to my “child.” They tried to show me pictures of what an abortion would look like. I realize that was not a good place and got out of there quickly.

I found another clinic in my city that offered abortions and visited them. At this point, I was 12 to 14 weeks and I was very, very sick all the time. I was told it would cost $1,000 for my procedure here. My boyfriend and I asked around and found a friend who loaned us that extra $100. Then I went in for my ultrasound and was told the most devastating news— I was not 12 or 14 weeks along, I was 20. That’s the cut off point where I was living and I was told I would need the procedure within the next 2 or 3 days, but it was going to cost $2,000. That first clinic, which I later found out was a crisis pregnancy center, had lied to me.

I was convinced my life was over and I was going to have to tell my very conservative family about what happened and either face them ridiculing me for the rest of my life for having a child as a teen but giving it up for adoption or them completely abandoning me after loaning me the money for the procedure.

But the sweet lady at the front desk took my hand, led me to a tiny room in the back with a chair, told me to sit down and handed me a piece of paper with a phone number on it. She said to call that number as many times as it took to reach somebody. 15 minutes and 36 calls later, I finally heard a woman’s voice on the phone. She asked basic information about me and then asked what clinic I was in, how far along I was and how much I needed. She put me on hold to do her work.

After a couple minutes, she was back and I heard the most amazing thing I’ve ever been told in my life, “We can help you.” They were able to transfer $990 to the clinic for me. That put me at $1990. I dug through my bag to find my tissues and what did I happen to find that I didn’t know I had? A $10 bill.

If it wasn’t for that amazing program, my life would be in shambles. I don’t know if I’d have a family, I don’t know if I’d still have my amazing boyfriend, I don’t know if I’d still have my job (which I’m now a manager at), I don’t know if I’d be in college (working towards a degree somewhere in the field of English) and I honestly don’t know if I’d even be alive. That was the most difficult point in my life and now I’m trying to give back to the organization that helped save my life so that they can continue saving others as well.

Thank you for letting me share my tale.

I bolded the parts where the Crisis Pregnancy Center manipulated and lied to somebody, because those places are just the worst. A study found that 20 out of the 23 CPCs they visited intentionally misinformed patients. And the best part? They received more than $30 million in taxpayer dollars under President George W. Bush.

But yeah. The FAN is amazing and I hope I can donate more to them in the future.