Posted on 04/02/2004 11:09:07 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Many of the nearly 60 students in attendance at a lecture sponsored by Penn State's Students for Life grew emotional last night as they heard a woman's experience of dealing with life after having an abortion.
Georgette Forney, co-founder of Silent No More Awareness Campaign, told of an abortion she had in 1976, when she was 16 years old. Audience members -- about half men and half women -- sniffled during parts of the presentation.
By the end of the two-hour event, the audience was cheering in response to a sudden offer by Forney to pay for buses to take students to Washington, D.C. on April 25 to protest against abortion rights activists.
"Silent No More is an organization of women that have had abortions and now speak out against abortions," explained Students for Life Outreach Chair Gilbert McNie.
Forney told the story of her abortion and how it ultimately led to inner turmoil.
"I remember thinking, 'This feels really wrong, but it's legal; it's got to be okay,' " she said, reflecting on her drive to the clinic where she had the abortion performed.
"My pregnancy was ... a problem I wanted to fix," she explained.
But she said over time, her life's biggest problems stemmed from dealing with her lost child.
"My heart was hurting," she said. "I wanted to go out and get high. I wanted to go out and get drunk. I wanted to numb myself."
She said she believed that God loved her but that he had not forgiven her abortion.
When her eight-year-old daughter came across her mother's writings about the abortion, Forney said she had to explain her past decisions.
"I was not prepared to explain abortion to an eight-year-old," she said. Forney said her daughter asked her, "Let me get this straight. When you were 16, you were pregnant, and killed your baby."
She said her daughter struggled with the issue for years, and when the family consulted church officials for advice, the church encouraged Forney to speak openly about her abortion.
And that is just what she does. Forney said she speaks about twice each week, posing the question she used to close last night's presentation: "Is abortion the best we can do for women? I don't think it is."
Genevieve Wilde (sophomore-chemistry and secondary education) said she knows a man and a woman who aborted a child, and Wilde appreciated Forney's efforts.
"The silence really, really eats at them," Wilde said. "Both of them feel terrible, and it's not being talked about."
Forney said abortion rights activists protest at the March for Life, and she wanted to "return the favor" by having abortion rights opponents protest at the April 25 abortion rights advocates rally.
"We have to get out there, and we have to fight them," Forney said near the end of a question-and-answer session after her speech. "I'll pay for your bus."
Students for Life president Cristina Barba said she thought most of those in attendance were against abortion rights, even though her organization invited feminist groups and others to the event.
She said she was "absolutely thrilled" by Forney's offer to pay for the buses.
Now why do I think this is not a fair rephrasing of her words?
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