I'm a pro-lifer who put herself through two years of undergrad by doing pre- and post-surg counseling of women and post-surg pathology on fetuses at an abortion clinic.

Yup. Pro-lifer, but it's a choice made for MYSELF. I feel confident enough that I won't end up in a situation where abortion is my only alternative, but I know it's not that way for everyone, and I can't imagine dictating my personal beliefs to an entire population. That is ridiculous.

What I found to be the case was that many of the pro-lifers seemed to think that all abortion advocates were rabid killers. If you are 'for' abortion, you must think that every pregnant woman 'needs' one. She doesn't need one, she just needs the choice.

Thankfully, the clinics in the system where I worked were perfectly happy in using my beliefs to deter women from having abortions. During the conselling and bloodwork/ultrasound, I was allowed to talk to women, give them options, phone numbers for supportive care, and free birth control to prevent further unwanted pregnancies. I found that a lot of women ended up coming to the clinic out of ignorance. They were alone and uninformed, and upon receiving the information that yes there are free health clinics, yes there is family counseling available, and yes there are people to help you, they made an informed decision as to whether or not they wanted to continue the pregnancy. At NO TIME was anyone in the clinic regarded badly for helping women to go on being pregnant, while at the same time the (equally uninformed) picketers in the parking lot were accusing us of dragging women in off the street to 'fill our quota of murder'.

Granted, we had every possible scenario walk through the door, from 13yr old rape victims, to prostitutes who used abortion as birth control, to 60yr old women who got the surprise that "Oh, you mean it's NOT menopause?"--but each of those women deserved to have CORRECT information about their alternatives, and IF the alternative they chose was abortion, they deserved to have the procedure done as quickly and safely as possible.

What I think these politicians fail to realize is that it is not a 'quick fix' for women. Many, from their first realization of their condition, think constantly about that possible child's life, but it's hard to create an accurate picture when you don't have all the puzzle pieces. Better than outlawing abortion, they should probably spend their time/effort/money in making the alternatives and education more easily available for women. Birth control needs to be available and they should ssk themselves the simple question: "If I woke up tomorrow alone and pregnant, what would I want to know?" and make those answers advertised and readily available instead of masking the situation as some back-alley enigma that polite people don't talk about.

~JE (off my soapbox now, I swear!)