When walking through campus I was shocked to see the anti-abortion protestors out in force with disgusting images of aborted babies (obviously late-term abortions.)

Maybe because I am an international student and from a country where a woman's right to choose abortion is uncontested, but I absolutely cannot understand their protest. What is the point except to disgust and frighten people with pictures of late term abortions (which most abortions are not)? Choosing to have an abortion is one of the most traumatic decisions a woman can make -- it is impossible to take lightly.

All this protest will do is frighten already desperate women as well as upset those who have gone through this experience. If a woman becomes pregnant it should not mean she suddenly loses control of her body -- if for whatever reason she decides she does not want the baby then, in this apparently free society, she should be allowed to make that decision without condemnation from other people.

But what can we expect from a country in which your own president has stopped foreign aid to family planning clinics if they assist women in attaining abortions? Legal abortion is necessary. It will occur even if it wasn't legal --except it will mean the death of many desperate women as well. Before condemning it in such a manner it would be wise to consider what this 'free' society would be like without it.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2002/04/04-22-02tdc/04-22-02dops-letter-02.asp