Good grief. Nobody is giggling over his feelings. He's entitled to feel grief about it. No one is invalidating that.

That doesn't mean it was a mistake for her. His willingness to reluctantly marry her doesn't mean that reluctant marriage would have been a stable or a good one. Or that she wouldn't have lost her opportunity to higher education if she wanted it. That he would have actively and equitably participated in the raising of that child. Or that he wouldn't have abandoned them both and whoever followed in poverty in the end.

He would have lost a lot of opportunity too. And not everyone's family is willing to help. Religious families in particular are known to throw their children to the wolves for their "mistakes". Given the fact that he still had nightmares about "the talk", I'm guessing that help would not have been easily forthcoming.

Wondering over what might have been is not the same as doing the work to make it a reality.

We also don't know if her family pressured her toward abortion. Yet you would condemn and criticize her.

She's the only one who can say if her choice was a mistake for her or not. It's not for anyone else to say, even the author. The abortion was not a mistake for him. Failing to wear a condom to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, selfishly seeking his own pleasure and letting someone else take all the risk was his mistake.

Apparently, it's one he repeated in a few years. That didn't end up well either as that young woman tried to kill him by his account. Not exactly a stable house to raise a child in.