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Commentary by David Bereit, National Coordinator, 40 Days for Life March 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A young woman walked up to the 40 Days for Life vigil outside an abortion center in Austin, Texas recently. She signed up to join the others in prayer ... and then immediately sat down on the sidewalk and started to cry. One of the volunteers stopped praying for a moment to approach the young woman, whom she had never met before, and asked her if she needed a hug. This volunteer assumed that the thought of what was going on inside the abortion facility...

An important but often unacknowledged angle of the abortion debate involves the serious effects that legalized abortion has on men. A recent scandal surrounding John Edwards, former North Carolina Senator and U.S. presidential candidate, brought this issue into plain view. Mr. Edwards publicly acknowledged an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter in the summer of 2008, a few months after pulling out of the presidential race. Even after admitting to the affair, however, he continued to deny having fathered Ms. Hunter’s daughter, Quinn, until January of 2010 when he finally admitted that he was, in fact, her father. A former aide...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from researchers at a university in New Zealand indicates 85 percent of women who had abortions report negative mental health issues as a result. The report is the latest from professor David Fergusson and his team showing abortions cause problems for women.The University of Otago team examined the medical history of over 500 women and concluded having an abortion generally “leads to significant distress in some” women who have them.It noted women reporting adverse reactions to their abortions were up to 80 percent more likely to have mental health problems and risk...

The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention. Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise." Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would somehow make them disappear, would confirm their utter impossibility. That Irene Vilar embraces the role of motherhood is a grand incongruity,...

An addiction that only motherhood could cure Irene Vilar tries to explain the pathology that led her to abort 15 pregnancies The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention. Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise." Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would...

A self-confessed abortion addict has revealed how she had 15 terminations in 17 years in an extraordinary act of rebellion against her controlling husband.

In 'Impossible Motherhood,' Irene Vilar, now a mother of two, writes of what led her to have 15 pregnancies ended. Reporting from Denver - Irene Vilar's house, a charming old place on a leafy block outside Denver, is a monument to her mothering. Half the downstairs has been transformed into a preschool, with picture books, educational toys and art supplies in organized disarray. Outside, her little girls, 3-year-old Lolita and 5-year-old Loretta, are decorating the walkway with brown-eyed susans plucked from the garden. It is a scene of almost magical domesticity. Inside, their mother, a striking 40-year-old literary agent with...

Fifty one rejection letters -- that is the number Irene Vilar received before she finally found someone to publish a tale so extreme it would surely be fiction if it wasn't her personal story: A woman who says she had 15 abortions and describes it as an addiction. The book, Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict -- a graphic and disturbing tale of one woman's abortions and her personal quest to understand her actions -- is bound to provoke a fury when it is released next week. It is no surprise that publishers backed away. Ms. Vilar says the...

Should doctors and hospitals be required by the federal government to maintain a national network of electronic health records for every individual in America that indicates, for example, whether that individual has had an abortion, a sexually transmitted disease, a mental illness or a drug problem? Such a system has already been mandated by the stimulus law enacted in February, and politicians in Washington, D.C., would now prefer not to answer straightforward questions about it. Americans should not let them get away with it. The stimulus law provided for “the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure” that would...

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions... Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions in 16 years. Pro-choice, she hopes her shocking story will spark a national discussion on abortion, one that won't compromise a woman's right to reproductive freedom. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed...

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Her book, "Impossible Motherhood," which will be released by Other Press on Oct. 6, chronicles her own dark choices: 15 abortions in 16 years, much of it as a married woman. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed "an inkling of hatred." Vilar has scheduled only closed-door interviews and will not do a book tour. At the urging of her husband,...

Milwaukee, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Project Rachel, the organization that has helped thousands of women rebuild their lives following the problems and pain of an abortion, is marking 25 years of ministry. The anniversary is a bittersweet moment because the need for such a group only arises out of death, pain and heartache. Vicki Thorn founded the ministry, which started as a project out of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and she has seen the physical and emotional scars of an abortion in the bodies and hearts of countless women. She told the Catholic News Service the anniversary has been "an awesome...

Like many black women, I once believed the doctor who told me my babies were no more than "a blob of tissue." I wanted to believe it. Eventually, I realized I was wrong, that I was a secondary victim of abortion. I repented and found healing through God. Today, I work in the civil rights movement of the our century -- the right of every one of every race to live... Abortion has taken a gruesome toll on the black community, killing more than AIDS and crime combined. Some 14 million black babies have been aborted since the 1973 U.S....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a new national survey conducted by the Polling Company for the pro-life organization Americans United for Life, a majority of Americans say they know someone who has had an abortion. A majority of those surveyed also believe that abortion hurts women. The Polling Company, a nationally known firm, asked the questions about abortion's effects during a May 17-18 survey with 800 adults across the country. Asked if they personally knew someone who has had an abortion, some 68 percent said they know a woman who had one while 30 percent said they did not. Of...

Contact: Margaret, 888-735-3448, ext. 251; Georgette Forney, 412-398-7885; both with Silent No More Awareness CampaignSTATEN ISLAND, NY., May. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Leaders of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign (SNMAC), the world's largest network of individuals harmed by abortion, responded today to Planned Parenthood's new Mother's Day appeal and urged post-abortive women to seek healing."Just when it seemed Planned Parenthood's Mother's Day fundraising letters couldn't get more hypocritical, this year they've brought in a children's author to say we should honor mothers by donating to the nation's largest abortion business," said Janet Morana, co-founder of SNMAC.   "Honoring mothers by giving money to Planned...

A play created by a member of a Minnesota theater company aims to be an alternative to "The Vagina Monologues," a popular campus play but one that is often criticized for its sexual explicitness. Jeremy Stanbary of Epiphany Studio Productions says his play, "The Vitae Monologues," portrays powerful stories of hope and healing from women who have suffered from the psychological and physical effects of abortion. Stanbary, founder and executive director of the Minneapolis-based Catholic production company, was inspired to write this play a few years ago after hearing women and men speak publicly of their experiences dealing with post-abortion...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The organizers of the 40 Days for Life campaign say their joint effort with Silent No More, a national group for women who have had abortions and regret their decision, was a success. Shawn Carney tells LifeNews.com he is hearing stories of how it was a positive impact for participants and their communities."Women -- and men -- who've experienced abortion stepped forward with signs reading 'I regret my abortion' and 'I regret lost fatherhood,'" he said. "The need for post-abortion healing increases every day, but so does the invitation for hope and healing after the...

Go to the blog for the the video that accompanies this. This is MY personal story... *** My Journey Through Abortion and Backby Shari My story starts in my childhood. I grew up with 2 alcoholics and a stepfather who sexually abused me. My parents divorced when I was 9 years old and my mother quickly remarried. The sexual abuse started within a month of their marriage. I was never raped, but it was always threatened and I lived in constant fear. What a terrible thing for a child to live through. I looked at my kids at 9 years...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life movement has a rich history of focusing not just on the death of an unborn child in an abortion but on the pain and regret millions of women fell following an abortion. Some of those women who wish they could undo their abortion decision and choose life will speak out again at this year's March for Life. Members of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, a network of men and women harmed by abortion, will give their personal abortion testimonies at Thursday's event.They will join the hundreds of thousands of marchers in the...

Intense feelings of guilt, shame, and anger are reported by many women who have had abortions. Psychologists generally agree that about 10 percent of the 1 million women who have abortions each year experience severe emotional trauma following the procedure. There is no consensus, however, about how many women experience less severe symptoms, collectively known as post-abortion syndrome or post-abortion emotional distress. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry indicated that 50 percent of women who have abortions experience post-abortion emotional distress. Another study conducted by Dr. Phillip G. Ney and reported in The Psychological Aspects of...