By Janet A. Morana

Associate Director, Priests for Life
Co-Founder, Silent No More Awareness Campaign

More and more women, as part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, hold signs at public events saying "I regret my abortion." The pro-abortion side, in response to this effort, is trying to give visibility to women who say, "I had an abortion and I don't regret it at all."

Fine, but that only proves our point, not theirs. If the pro-abortion side wants to counter what we are doing, let them gather groups of women nationwide holding signs saying, "I regret my child."

Here's the point. We are saying abortion is hurtful, and they are saying childbirth is hurtful. This is precisely one of the arguments in Roe vs. Wade for permitting abortion. The Court said, "Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it" (Roe, at 153).

The alternative experience to killing an unborn child is giving birth to that child -- not killing the child and then saying it was OK. The point of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign is that what the other side defends and promotes (that is, abortion) has a negative side that is being hidden and denied. To round up a group of women to continue denying it only proves our point, not theirs. The denial, in other words, continues, and most of the women who now hold "I Regret my Abortion" signs once said that their abortion caused them no problem at all.

If the other side really wants to try to mount a counter-campaign, they need to do what we have done, namely, take what we promote and show the negative side of it. We promote childbirth. The true reverse of our campaign would be to have women publicly come out and say, "I regret my child."

The Silent No More Awareness Campaign (www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org) is gaining momentum very quickly. At the National Vigil Mass for Life on January 21, Cardinal William Keeler, Chairman of the Pro-life Committee of the US Bishops, praised the campaign in his homily. The next day, at the nationally televised March for Life rally, several members of Congress pointed to this effort as a new and powerful dimension of the pro-life movement. And one member of the Senate, Democrat Zell Miller of Georgia, was converted to the pro-life position in large measure as a result of seeing the Silent No More women gathered in front of the Supreme Court, sharing their testimonies.

Anglicans for Life and Priests for Life, the two groups that founded the campaign, continue to organize events nationwide all through the year, whereby women who have come through healing after abortion can testify publicly and help in other ways to spread the word about how harmful abortion is. Pray for these women, and when you see one, say "thanks."