Hey folks, it's Camille Kishani, host of the StoryCore podcast from NPR.

Considering everything going on in the news right now, we're sliding in your feed with

an extra story this week.

It comes from Miss Betty Thompson.

After she retired in the mid 90s, she decided to start a second career as a counselor at

the Jackson Women's Health Organization.

By 2004, it was the only remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi.

Betty came to StoryCore to talk about how her experiences as a teenager in the early

1960s led to her work at the clinic.

When I was 16, I didn't tell my parents that I was pregnant, they told me.

At that moment, my mom started to cry and said, girl, you're pregnant.

My mouth blew open.

I was devastated.

You know, there are times when you want the floor to swallow you up.

Well, that was so past embarrassing and nothing was swallowing me up.

And then she sat me down in that chair to call my hair.

But she never combed my hair.

She couldn't say it was okay, but a touch can mean so much sometimes.

And I think she forgave me at that moment.

She touched me.

I kept my son, but my mom was the main caregiver.

Because of my family, I went back to finish high school and went to college.

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