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I'm a young woman (22) and am not married. I have a steady whom I could get pregnant by but I do not want children now. I feel I have to respond to this post because I am the person pro-lifers want to convince. (Please don't try to convince me! I'm pro-life too and can't imagine having an abortion under any circumstances)

The "you're going to hell" argument is a dud. According to those who use this argument I'm probably going to hell anyway since I'm having sex outside of marriage.

The giant pictures of aborted fetuses is also a dud. When I see a picture like that, the first thing I want is get away from it and get the image out of my head. Very few people can look at a picture like that and feel empathy for to baby as a human being who was killed before he got his shot at life. I think showing high-resolution ultrasounds would be a much better way to get girls to recognize their babies as human.

I have a friend I've known since the 5th grade who got pregnant and wanted to raise the child but her scumbag boyfriend refused to marry her. Being a good liberal and a pro-choicer she went down to Planned Parenthood and got an abortion. She nearly died because they failed to test her for rH negative blood. Despite this, she got pregnant again several months later by the same scumbag and went to the same Planned Parenthood and got another abortion, this time with a "very good, specialist" doctor they brought in just for her.

What could I have said to her to stop her? I don't know. Before the first abortion, I tried to talk her into giving the child up for adoption. Afterwords, I tried to talk her into going on the Pill to lessen the odds she would get pregnant again. Obviously, she didn't take my advise either time.

This was several years ago and I have hardly seen her since (in large part because have trouble relating to her the same way as before the abortions). She seemed very depressed after the abortions and hasn't really been the same since.

I think pro-lifers should completly change their tactics. What is the pro-life doing now that would have changed her mind? Nothing. The only thing I've ever seen that might make a difference was an ad I saw on Canadian TV. It showed a young women walking through the halls of her school and obviously upset about something. The voice over said something like: "We all are faced with difficult choices and sometimes it seems like there is only one way out. But that little voice in her head tells a woman to do the right thing. You know you should listen to that voice. Call us, there is another way." Forgive the paraphrase, the ad was really quite moving. I think a few ads like that on American TV might make a big difference.

I'm sorry for the long post but I wanted to get all my thoughts out.