SILENT NO MORE
Underlying much of the debate about abortion is the assumption that the freedom to choose an abortion is a benefit to women. Though abortion may not be good for the unborn child, the theory goes, it gives women an important option-even though crisis pregnancy centers around the country will provide health and adoption services for free.
Silent No More presents the stories of women who have had abortions and now regret them. "Those of us who have had abortions have not spoken out," said Susan Renne Mosley, co-founder of Silent No More, in an interview earlier this month. "It's very shameful. How many women do you hear screaming, 'I had an abortion and it was great'?"
Silent No More began a national campaign this past January 22, the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's unconstitutional "legalization" of abortion on demand through Roe v. Wade. "This mobilization of women is the beginning of a national campaign to raise awareness about the negative after-effects of abortion experienced by many women," said Silent No More in a statement.
In Silent No More literature, co-founder Georgette Forney, who had an abortion at age 16, says, "After 30 years it's time to listen to us, the women who have experienced it. There is a lot of talk about whether or not abortion should be legal, but very little attention is given to the women who have actually had abortions."
Mosley had an abortion at age 15. "When I was 15, in 9th grade, I was a cheerleader," she said. "Just that previous year, I was president of the student council. I started dating an older guy who was a friend of another guy down the street and I became sexually active. I went to a Planned Parenthood clinic and they told me I was pregnant. They told me the test was positive, but it was no big deal. They were going to solve the problem. It was a 20-minute procedure. They were going to 'clean me out.'
"I asked the nurse if I needed to shower more. After all, she said they needed to 'clean me out.' I came back, I guess, two or three days later. . . . At the time, I was very much into women's rights. I wanted to be on the boys' football team. I was 'burn my bra.' It was that time, I guess."
Just before the procedure began, said Mosley, "I told the nurse that I wanted to stop now. She said, 'Oh, no, you can't stop now. Don't go crying on me.' They turned on the suction machine. It was so loud, I jumped off the table. The doctor yelled at me to keep still or it would hurt more. It hurt a lot."
Mosley could tell the abortion did not go smoothly because of the doctor's actions and the length of the procedure, which took 40 to 45 minutes instead of 20. "I heard another girl screaming," Mosley remembered. After the abortion, "I was on the path to self-destruction," she said. "I never went back to school. I went with abusive men." She was once date raped, she said.
"When I was lying on that table and I heard the stuff going through the tube," said Mosley, "it was like sucking on a milkshake. Sometimes, parts of the baby would get stuck in the tube. It was not consistent with the picture the nurse showed me."
Later in life, she had miscarriages, and learned from doctors that her uterus was scarred. "They realized how much damage the abortion had done," she said. Eventually, she had a son.
"When I heard my son's first cries of life, I felt joy for the first time in years," she said. "I had just accepted faith in Christ. . . . When I saw my son for the first time, I didn't just love him, I loved me, too. I put my son up for adoption." She later went through two divorces, three miscarriages, and then had breast cancer three years ago. "There are a lot of links between breast cancer and abortion," she said.
Silent No More has over 1,000 women who have signed up or participated in events in states across the country. Women rallied for their cause at the U.S. Capitol and almost all state capitols on January 22. "We will have a healing service in May," said Mosley. "There will be a memorial service in October." She said that abortion will be outlawed again "once people realize how horrible an experience it is for women."
That is not to say that Silent No More ignores the killing of unborn children. "Science and medicine, we know that it's human," said Mosley. "Most people know that it's human. But what many people believe is that abortion is good for women. . . . I think that people will not want to have abortions anymore. There are so many other options out there, like adoption." She said that adoption rules need to be streamlined. "It takes two years to terminate the rights of a parent in an adoption. . .," she said. "Abortion is the most exploitative thing of women out there. They make money off killing your baby."
Silent No More may be reached at P.O. Box 551, Caledonia, Miss. 39740 (662-574-2463; www.silentnomorecampaign.com).
