"The Lives" column in New York Times Magazine carried a first-person account of Amy Richards and her decision to abort two of three fetuses she carried.

Richards stopped taking birth control pills because it affected her mood. Though unmarried, she and her boyfriend determined to keep a baby should there be a pregnancy. After pregnancy occurred, Richards was shocked to learn she was carrying triplets. She chronicled her reaction to the news:

My immediate response was, I cannot have triplets. I was not married; I lived in a five-story walk-up in the East Village; I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?

I felt like: It's not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I'm going to have to move to Staten Island. I'll never leave my house because I'll have to care for these children. I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don't think that deep down I was ever considering it.

Richards chose a procedure that administered a shot of potassium chloride into the hearts of two of the fetuses. She later delivered a healthy boy.

Ms. Richards is an abortion rights advocate, associated with Planned Parenthood, and a co-founder of a feminist organization that finances abortions, the Third Wave Foundation.