Pro-Life Feminist Group Holds Capitol Hill Abortion Briefing, Presents New Speakers
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 14, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — One of the leading pro-life women’s groups took their message to Capitol Hill today and told a legislative briefing room full of Congressional staff and interns that women deserve better than abortion. Feminists for Life of America also unveiled a new slate of speakers who will travel the country addressing college students.
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline abortion 30 years ago at five months into the pregnancy, shared her story at the nation’s capitol.
Ohden was placed in a neonatal unit until she was adopted, but in a statement sent to LifeNews.com, she sees her near-death experience as a testimony to share with others.
“Instead of being angry or bitter about the circumstances that surrounded my arrival into this world, I have chosen to be grateful,” she said. “The time has come in my life when I believe I need to use my story to provide a voice for women and children and the obstacles that they face in the world we all live in.”
Ohden’s story is arguably the most dramatic, but all five of the women Feminists for Life announced as part of its refurbished speakers program give college pro-life groups the chance to hear from someone with a nontraditional pro-life message.
The women will help students present the need for college campuses to provide resources and support to pregnant and parenting students.
“These remarkable women tell different stories but all with one theme and unifying belief – women deserve better than abortion,” Feminists for Life president Serrin Foster told LifeNews.com. “These speakers will be able to reach even more students and campuses than ever before.”
In addition to Ohden, FFL is presenting Karen Shablin, who converted from a “card-carrying member of NARAL” to a pro-life feminist position. She discusses her experience choosing to have an abortion and how she became pro-life.
“I can’t undo my mistakes over the years—having an abortion, advocating abortion, but I can help others to learn from my mistakes. Every life counts," the former Medicaid director says.
Joyce Ann McCauley-Benner was raped at the age of 20 and chose not to have an abortion.
She says, “I know what it’s like to want to run as far away as possible from a problem, how it feels to hang on to ‘if I wasn’t pregnant anymore, it would all be okay again.’”
Ann Lowrey Forster was known for her pro-abortion letters to the editor when she became pregnant her sophomore year in college. She gave birth that summer, returning to school for junior year.
Urged to abort and deserted by her boyfriend, Ms. Forster continued her pregnancy and graduated on time with honors. She’s now a law clerk at a firm in the southern U.S.
And Angelica Rosales founded a pregnancy center shortly after graduating from college and continues to run the agency. She’s motivated by knowing that her mother was encouraged to have an abortion when she was pregnant.
Rosales sees firsthand the experiences of pregnant and parenting women, particularly college age women, facing crisis situations. She sums up the Feminists for Life message well, saying “This failure to provide resources is a reflection of how far we still need to go to eliminate the root causes of abortion."
In addition to the new speakers, Foster continues to give presentations on college campuses along with two-time Emmy winner Patricia Heaton, the honorary chairwoman of the pro-life group.
Related web sites:
Feminists for Life of America – https://www.feministsforlife.org
