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Years ago, Melissa was raped. What followed was one of the hardest decisions of her life.

Hear a couple of women from Kansas explain why we should have the right to make a decision like Melissa's.

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Melissa Olsen is a mother from Wichita, Kansas.

She has two kids. Here is one of them.

Here is Melissa with her family.

Many years ago, before she had a family, Melissa was raped.

That's young Melissa on the right.

After her rape, Melissa found out she was pregnant.

In an email to Upworthy, Melissa explained how her pregnancy wasn't a direct result of her sexual assault.

    "I was raped at 15 and was still in the process of healing when I went to University of Kansas. I was sexually assaulted by three men that fall of 1997. I proceeded to flounder, and became lost and terrified. My PTSD, depression, and anxiety went into overload. I began drinking heavily and became pregnant the summer following my assault — and most definitely not from the assault. I didn't feel as if I were a whole person, or anywhere near ready to have someone live within me when I hated the touch of my own flesh."

To this day, she remembers how hard her decision was.

Ultimately, Melissa decided to get an abortion.

Here's what she has to say about her decision:

    "I got my abortion for multiple reasons, but one of the huge reasons was after my rape, I wasn't prepared to share my body for nine months with another being. I felt like I had already put my body and my spirit through so much that I don't think that psychologically I could have been through a pregnancy. I was angry and I was afraid and I literally had nothing left to give."

She also told Upworthy this:

    "I don't want my message to be that you must be traumatized to have an abortion. Trauma doesn't make you worthy of an abortion. Having your own hopes, dreams, and ideas does."

Today, Melissa has no regrets about her decision. She only wishes her younger self could have been less hard on herself.

Fact: 1 in 3 women of reproductive age will have an abortion. Melissa was one of those women.

Watch this video to learn more about her story and the advocates who have worked to help people like Melissa.

FACT CHECK TIME!

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Help is on the way for a desperate mom who couldn't find size 23 shoes for her teenage son

Her son Eric Kilburn Jr. is a 6'10" freshman in high school.

via GoFundMe

A size 21 Nike shoe made for Tacko Fall.

A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It's a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.

When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.

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SIX ovaries?!

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In a segment called “What Do You Know About The Female Body?” men try—and hilariously fail—to answer even the most basic questions, like “does a female have one uterus, or two?” much to the amazement of some of their female partners.

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Florida principal forced to resign after showing Michelangelo's 'David' to students

“It saddens me that my time here had to end this way."

Photo by Igor Ferreira on Unsplash

Florida principal fired after showing statue of "David."

If you ask most teachers why they went into education, they'll share that it had nothing to do with the money and everything to do with their passion for teaching. Even with rapid changes in curriculum and policies, teachers who remain in the classroom are lovers of education and are doing their best to help kids learn.

Hope Carrasquilla, the former principal of Florida's Tallahassee Classical School, was one of those teachers who simply enjoyed teaching. As the principal, Carrasquilla was required to teach two classes. During her sixth grade lesson about Renaissance art, which is also a requirement of the school, Carrasquilla showed a picture of Michelangelo's "David" statue.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, three parents complained about their children being shown the picture. Two of those parents were mostly upset that there wasn't sufficient notice given before the photo of the sculpture was shown. The third parent reportedly complained that the statue of the Biblical figure was pornographic.

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People are sharing the one 'simple rule that would fix the world if people actually followed it'

Here are 17 rules that would make life better for everyone.

via Pexels

A teacher lists his class rules.

The world would be a much better place if humans weren’t so … human. We all fall short of perfection. Common sense is, sadly, not too common. And there’s one guy out there who always manages to screw things up when things start getting good.

Call it Murphy’s law. Call it the great “reason we can’t have nice things.” Call it entropy. It feels like a whole lot of pain could be avoided if we all had just a little bit more sense.

But what if there was one rule that we all agreed to follow to make everyone’s life better? What would this magical rule be?

A Reddit user who goes by the name P4insplatter came to this realization and asked the AskReddit subforum, “What simple rule would fix the world if everyone actually followed it?” They received dozens of simple rules that if everyone got behind would make the world drastically better.

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Dad found out his son bullied a kid at school and came up with a brilliant teaching moment

"I told him that we have the opportunity to make things right."

@thehalfdeaddad/TikTok

Dad on TikTok shared how he addressed his son's bullying.

What do you do when you find out your kid bullied someone? For many parents, the first step is forcing an apology. While this response is of course warranted, is it really effective? Some might argue that there are more constructive ways of handling the situation that teach a kid not only what they did wrong, but how to make things right again.

Single dadPatrick Forseth recently shared how he made a truly teachable moment out of his son, Lincoln, getting into trouble for bullying. Rather than forcing an apology, Forseth made sure his son was actively part of a solution.


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Heads up! That call from a panicky relative may be a scammer voice clone.

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via Pexels

A man makes a phone call from prison.

One of the oldest frauds in the book is the “your loved one is in trouble” scam. Scammers call posing as a grandchild or loved one in distress who claims they’ve been kidnapped or are in jail. The scammer may also impersonate a nurse, police officer, lawyer or other authority figure representing the loved one.

The scammer claims that the loved one needs money wired to the fraudster immediately to bring them to safety.

The scam is effective because the victim is under pressure to get them money quickly, so they don’t have time to consider the fact that it may be a scam. All the while, they imagine the torment the loved one is going through. The urgency of the scam makes it much more likely that the victim will hand over the money.

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