Priests for Life and the Elliot Institute
Groups Promote Post-Abortion Awareness

Springfield, IL -- "If abortion supporters believe abortion is a woman's issue, shouldn't they listen to the voices of women who have had abortions?" asks Fr. Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life.

In an effort to provide a platform for women's voices to be heard by both supporters and opponents of abortion, Priests for Life and the Elliot Institute have announced an combined effort to make an expanded number of women's testimonies available to the public through the internet. Over the years, both of these organizations have collected numerous testimonies and case studies.

With the permission of those who wrote them, the testimonies have been posted at www.priestsforlife.org  and the Elliot Institute's www.afterabortion.org

"A tenet of feminism is that we should listen to the voices of women." Fr. Pavone said. "The voices of aborted women speak loudly and clearly that abortion is a dead end. To listen to them, and to allow their voices to have an even wider audience, is to honor the value of their experience and insights. So many of these women -- and men as well -- find that the sharing of their testimony strengthens their healing and enables them to carry out the role, as our Holy Father has said, of being among the most eloquent voices for life in our society. In collaboration with the tremendous work of the Elliot Institute, will continue to give such testimonies the hearing they deserve."

Dr. Reardon, the director of the Elliot Institute, an education and research group specializing in the area of post-abortion reactions, agrees that wider dissemination of women's testimonies will make a difference.

"The debate over abortion is generally focused on whether women have a right to abortion rather than on whether abortion actually benefits women. All too often, it is just assumed that women's lives stay the same or are improved after an abortion In fact, many if not most women's lives are damaged, if not shattered, but most suffer in silence because of their shame and grief. These women have shared details of their actual experience and innermost feelings with us hoping that we will help to make their voices heard. Nearly all of them have only a single motivation, to help other women facing the same hard choice to know the truth before they make a tragic choice which they will regret."

Abortion has had a devastating effect on the lives of many women. The fact that they suffer in silence does not make their suffering any less. Affidavits are now being collected as part of the evidence that will be taken to the courts in legal challenges to the current abortion climate and its legal underpinnings.

They are being collected by several cooperating organizations, including the National Foundation For Life and the Texas Justice Foundation. The affidavits will be used as part of a new woman-centered legal challenge to Roe v Wade. According to Allan Parker, an attorney who founded the public interest law firm Texas Justice Foundation, "The federal law on abortion dictated by the Supreme Court has been a disaster for women. Rather than advancing the rights of women, it has actually made it easier for women to be pressured or misled into undergoing unnecessary and unsafe abortions."

As part of this court challenge, the Texas Justice Foundation is also representing Norma McCorvey, who was the "Roe" of Roe v. Wade and Sandra Cano who was the "Doe" of Doe v. Bolton. Both of these ladies, on whose behalf the Supreme Court struck down all state laws governing abortion, will be petitioning the High Court to reverse its rulings in these cases.