"You walk in, you walk out, you remember for the rest of your life - and you are tormented for the rest of your life." This emotional anguish expressed by a woman relating her abortion experience echoes sentiments expressed by post-abortive women around the nation.

The Supreme Court Justices exercised raw judicial power in writing the Roe v. Wade decision twenty-six years ago. As they invented a right to abortion for the entire nine months of a woman's pregnancy, they no doubt envisioned a new freedom for women. But this "freedom" has brought harm instead of good. In the words of prolife activist Frederica Mathewes-Green, "A woman chooses abortion, not as she chooses a flavor for an ice cream cone, but as an animal chooses to gnaw off its foot to get out of a trap."

Grief, regret, guilt, and emotional isolation await many women who have unsuspectingly chosen abortion as their "only option" in a crisis pregnancy. Post-abortive women commonly express the ambivalence they had about their abortion decision, but in many instances found that boyfriends, family members, and peers encouraged only one choice - abortion. They regularly tell of inadequate or inaccurate information given to them prior to their abortion and are unprepared for the emotional jail into which the abortion catapults them. "It was imprisonment, that's the only way I can describe it. There was not a day that went by that I didn't think of it - it was always there," said one woman, describing her years of living with her abortion prior to receiving post-abortion counseling. Is this the type of "freedom" Roe envisioned for women?

The past four years has brought the American public into a discussion on partial-birth abortion. A partial-birth abortion is performed on unborn children five months and older. The unborn child is partially delivered, her brains are suctioned out, and then delivery is completed. Last year young boys at play discovered fifty-four late-term aborted babied in Chino Hills, California, in a vacant field. Thirteen hundred people attended services in that town to give an honorable burial to the aborted children. Are these types of horrors what we envisioned when Roe gave women the "freedom" to terminate a pregnancy?

Recently the mothers of two 15 year-old girls from different parts of the state called our office seeking help. They detailed similar stories of accidentally discovering their teen daughters' secret abortions. Both daughters had been counseled to have abortions by adults who had no relationship with the families. Both daughters, who came from supportive homes, were encouraged not to tell their parents. In Oregon there is no requirement that the parent of a 15, 16, or 17 year-old girl be notified of her abortion. Is this what we envisioned when Roe gave women the "freedom" to choose an abortion?

The modern technology of ultrasound has provided us with a view into the mother's womb, where we can see the unborn child cavorting energetically. Little hands, little feet, little perfectly formed body are all easily identified - and all by the twelfth week of pregnancy. Yet at this same age (9-12 weeks), over 4000 abortions are done yearly in Oregon. Is this what we envisioned when Roe gave women the "freedom" to choose what to do with their own bodies?

After twenty-six years experience with legalized abortion the public is uneasy with how extreme the Roe v. Wade decision is. Polling shows the vast majority of Americans favor protective legislation such as parental involvement and women's right-to-know laws. Supreme Court decisions have upheld these laws which have been passed in many states. Recent polling shows that 73% of Americans think that the partial -birth abortion procedure should be banned, and consistently shows that a majority of Americans think that abortion should be legal only in cases where the mother's life is in jeopardy, or in cases of rape or incest.

Twenty-six years of legalized abortion has taught America many lessons. Abortion, which brings dismemberment and death to the unborn child, also brings pain, grief, and regrets to the abortive mother. Americans can do well by offering compassionate care to a woman in her crisis pregnancy to replace the pain which abortion brings. Financial aid, emotional support, adoptive help, and parental notification and women's right-to-know laws are all ideas that work. Many of these services are being supplied on a daily basis by pregnancy support centers nationwide.

The hard lessons we've learned about the consequences of abortion, coupled with what new medical technologies have taught us about the humanity of the unborn, should persuade America to reexamine the issue. We must end abortion which brings only pain and destruction. We must actively help both the mother and her unborn child.