For most college students, life post-graduation means having to deal with the uncertainty of that first big job search—after the parties have subsided. For Aspen Baker, the concern was more personal and pressing. She became pregnant shortly after graduation at the age of 23. One month later, she had an abortion.

“I was living in Berkeley and had a very safe, very respectful abortion experience, which left me feeling relieved and glad that I had access to that quality of medical service,” explains Baker. “Along the way nobody really talked to me about what to expect afterwards in terms of how I might feel [or] the resources available to me—it never came up. So when I got home, [for] the first couple of days I was glad it was over and then I began thinking about if I wanted to talk about it, who I could talk about it with. It felt like there was a lot for me to say.”

Baker started looking for post-abortion resources but only came across religious-based materials. Because those came from the position that abortion is always the wrong decision, it wasn’t the type of resource that she was looking for. Thinking she couldn’t be the only person who had an abortion in the last 30 years that needed to talk to somebody about it, Baker made it her mission to find other resources.

After volunteering at a rape crisis agency to learn about counseling and running an organization, Baker helped found Exhale, an after-abortion counseling “talkline,” of which she serves as executive director. The free, anonymous and confidential talkline, which launched in 2002, is now available nationwide, in five languages, seven days a week.

Over the last four years Exhale has spoken with hundreds of people across the United States, ranging from women who are in the process of ending a pregnancy to women who had abortions decades ago. And while they are dedicated to helping women with post-abortion feelings, they define themselves as apolitical and are not taking sides.