I worked on a project in high school when I was sixteen that was the beginning of my research on the controversial issue of abortion. I was horrified to see photographs of garbage cans and bloody buckets filled with dismembered and/or fully-formed, dead fetuses. I was shocked that it was legal.

Since then, the prolife cause has been a deep-rooted passion for me: my heart longing to expose the truth to others - as well as the lies. ...

Over the years, I’ve read countless testimonies of women (and men), who terribly regret their decisions to terminate their unborn children. They're plagued by guilt, anger, depression, and often despair.

My heart breaks for them.

Young women enter abortuariums in a desperate state of mind, have the ten minute surgery and then go home. It isn’t until later that the impact of what they've done hits them fullforce. To their horror, they discover that their unborn baby was more than just a clump of tissue. But by then it's too late.

Chief Justice, Brian Dickson, of the Supreme Court of Canada, wrote: “Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a violation of her security of the person.”

Using the term “fetus” instead of “baby” makes abortion sound no different than the removal of a defective gallbladder. Yet, if a woman were to hear so much as the heartbeat of her unborn child, how could she ever again believe it to be only a clump of cells? a mere part of her body? If abortion is really about choice, then why are women lied to about fetal development? Why this need for deception? Aren't women strong enough and smart enough to know exactly what it is they're aborting before they decide to do it?

I’ll never forget when I saw my daughter on ultrasound. I was only 12 weeks pregnant (two months along). The image of that ultrasound is forever implanted in my mind’s eye: Tali was lying on her back with her legs sticking upwards, her arms moving and little fingers waving in the amniotic fluid. I could see her chin, her nose and the side profile of her face. And even though she was so fully formed already, she was only about 2 inches long! According to the CDC, the majority of abortions take place between 7-13 weeks gestation. So, my question is, how can anyone say that to deny a woman an abortion is to profoundly interfere with her body? That little child within me, though she could fit entirely within my hand, was and is her own person. She is not me, and she never was me. Therefore, abortion would be a profound interference with her body and thus a violation of her (not my, “the woman’s”) security of the person.

Women have worked so hard to be independent and free; to have equal rights to men. Many believe that their legal right to abortion is a victory on the behalf of feminism. But is it really a victory? From all I've seen, from all the testimonies I've read and from all I've learned: abortion is abuse. It is the abuse of women and the abuse of children.

In his book, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” Pope John Paul II said of women who choose abortion: “I see her like a beautiful white rabbit who placed her paw in an iron trap. In her pain and fear, she gnaws her own leg and leaves it in the trap. But for the rest of her life, she walks crippled.”

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Comment(s) :	[quote=Guest User]It is kindof crazy for me to read your post because your story is so similar to my own. I stumbled accross the Weighdown Workshop book at my local library a couple of years ago and it totally changed my relationship with food as well. I had been dieting since childhood and just knew that once I became thin both me and my life would be perfect. Well, I am now a size 0 and weigh 113 pounds and am 5'5, but even though I quit using food as anesthesia, I still feel empty sometimes. And I still binge when I "feel" fat and ugly and/or depressed. But now I know that even though I overeat, all I have to do is wate until I'm hungry and then start all over. It's way better than waiting til Monday to start the next diet that won't work. I lost all my excess weight but I am still the same "me" inside, so that was kind of disappointing. I also read Geneen Roth's book called Breaking Free From Emotional Eating, which filled in some of the gaps that Gwen Shamblen's book left open. Pain is something I will always have to deal with, in some form or another, as long as I am human. Thank you for being so honest. [/quote]

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