In this op-ed, Beth Vial tells her abortion story.

In recent weeks, New York and Virginia have made headlines for their efforts to cut the medically unnecessary regulations on later abortion. The bills sought to ensure that people seeking abortions would no longer have to travel out of state for care and, in Virginia's case, ask one — not three — doctors for approval. The policies even made it into the president's State of the Union address. Anti-abortion advocates have been intentionally misleading the public about the policies and misrepresenting what later abortion is and why people have them. I know because I had an abortion at 28 weeks.

I’m 23, and I have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and irritable bowel syndrome, which means I’m in a constant state of pain; I have absent and irregular — if present at all — periods, nausea and vomiting, weight fluctuation from the PCOS, as well as cramping and more from the IBS-C/D, all of which are symptoms of an early pregnancy. I’d recently heard about a friend of a friend who didn't know she was pregnant and went into premature labor. The idea of being pregnant for that long and not knowing scared me, and taking a pregnancy test is pretty standard anytime I go to the doctor to address PCOS-related issues. So I took a pregnancy test just in case, but the test came back negative and a doctor told me I was infertile due to my PCOS. When the symptoms persisted, though, I sought further care.

It was then that I found out I was pregnant, and then that I started experiencing challenges to accessing an abortion.

Unsure of what to do after I learned I was pregnant, an aide at my doctor's office told me to go to a clinic, which turned out to be an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center, for a free ultrasound I thought I needed. There I filled out the paperwork, took a pregnancy test, and went into a small room with a counselor, who gave me a ton of literature and talked to me about my options. Because the crisis pregnancy center didn’t have nurses on staff, she said I would need to go to a different location for an ultrasound. I started to feel weird about the way they were trying to convince me not to have an abortion. But I was panicking, so I was willing to accept any free help I could get.

At the second clinic, they gave me a "diagnostic ultrasound" and broadcasted the image on a huge television screen. They pointed at the fetal parts and said macabre things like “Let’s check to make sure the head is attached.”

I was sobbing and couldn’t bear to look at the screen. They handed me six ultrasound images and said I was 16 weeks pregnant. I explained I wanted an abortion, but they said it was dangerous. I now know it’s a very safe procedure. I realized they were never going to help me, so I left.

The next day I went to a hospital near my home to get a real ultrasound. That’s when I couldn’t believe what they told me: I was actually 26 weeks pregnant.

All the while, the anti-abortion advocates from the centers I had visited kept calling me day and night, harassing me about my decision. I finally yelled at them on the phone and blocked their number. They made an already stressful situation worse — something crisis pregnancy centers frequently do. They use deceptive practices, like telling someone they are much earlier or later in their pregnancy than they really are, or frightening people with myths about abortion, seemingly in an attempt to sway people away from the procedure.