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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It is Friday, which is once we listen from StoryCorps. And these days, we meet a pair who need to discuss one thing they have got by no means shared ahead of.

TOM PETERS: We have been going to speak about a secret we’ve.

JOAN PETERS: Yeah. We have been going to have a child, and we made up our minds to not.

INSKEEP: Tom and JoAn Peters first met in Los Angeles in 1999. They fell in love, and a few years later, JoAn were given pregnant. Tom requested her to marry him.

J PETERS: I used to be sitting at the sofa, and I take note asking you when you have been marrying me since you beloved me and also you sought after to be married or when you have been marrying me as a result of it is the proper factor to do. And also you mentioned you have been marrying me as it was once the suitable factor to do. I used to be sobbing. And I mentioned, neatly, then I do not need to get married, and I do not need to have this child. My worry was once you’ll develop to resent us. A few issues that stand out in my reminiscence concerning the day of the abortion – you took superb care of me that day. You in point of fact nurtured me all through that point. However I do not take note doing that for you. I by no means requested you the way you felt about it.

T PETERS: I feel on the time, I used to be seeking to get during the process itself and stay you secure.

J PETERS: I by no means wondered our choice. I by no means regretted it. I did not need my kid to ever say, why is not my father right here?

T PETERS: However you then mentioned, come again to me when you are in a position to get married and feature a kid.

J PETERS: Sure.

T PETERS: And I ran for the hills again to unmarried lifestyles, spent a 12 months and a part relationship different girls, however could not get you out of my thoughts. And what flashed in my thoughts at the moment was once I used to be in a position.

J PETERS: We were given married, after which we came upon what I assumed was once a chilly putting on for pricey lifestyles was once in reality a being pregnant. And Ellie (ph) got here into the arena, essentially the most easiest child that anybody may just ever ask for. I will be able to’t get sufficient of the 2 of you in combination. You like her, and it presentations. And he or she adores you. You are the whole lot I sought after. And he or she is, too.

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INSKEEP: JoAn and Tom Peters in Santa Monica, Calif. Their daughter, Ellie, is now 17. This weekend marks 50 years for the reason that Superb Courtroom dominated on Rowe v. Wade, the verdict that made abortion a constitutional proper till it was once overturned closing summer season. This interview shall be archived on the American Folklife Heart on the Library of Congress.

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