Wednesday's Students for Life on-campus meeting featured one woman's story about having an abortion.

The event, entitled "Been There Done That: Woman Tell Their Stories About Abortion," featured a former Marquette student who had an abortion in 1982.

"This is wrong for women. I'm 40 years old and still recovering," said the woman, who wanted to use the alias Tammy.

Tammy said her mother encouraged her decision.

The abortion clinic staff "never once said it was a baby," she said. "They just said it was a glob of tissue."

Tammy said she hemorrhaged the next day because of the poor care she received at Bread and Roses, a Milwaukee abortion clinic that is no longer practicing.

After her abortion, Tammy said she became involved in witchcraft, prostitution and used and sold drugs. After being arrested, she joined the military where she said she became more promiscuous as her rank increased.

When she decided to abandon her past, got married and wanted to get pregnant, she said she could not.

"I had what they call unexplained infertility," Tammy said. "I did get pregnant, but miscarried. In 2000 I became pregnant with triplets. One was stillborn, another died two weeks after being born and I still have one."

Tammy said she had a boy six months ago.

"Women need to know there are other options out there. A baby is not an emergency, it's not a crisis," she said. "I wish someone would have said, 'Stop, chill, take a deep breath.'"

Tammy said she is still healing from her decision.

"Recovery is life-long. I know I'm forgiven, but it's hard to forgive myself," Tammy said. "I could have a 22-year-old."

A worker from the Pregnancy Help Center in Milwaukee named Patti said the center holds post-abortion retreats to aid women in healing.

"The only way a woman is healed is through Christ," Patti said. "If you know anyone that's thinking about or has had an abortion, evangelize to them."

"There is no particular face of women who have had an abortion. They're at this university and in the grocery store," Patti said.

Katie Schaitberger, a senior in the College of Business Administration, said the point of the event was to address an issue that is not discussed enough.

"We can't stay silent about this," Schaitberger said. "The truth is women are getting hurt. There are Marquette students who have to leave school because they are depressed since they had an abortion, not because they were pregnant."

Schaitberger has worked at the center for two years and has been a counselor there for a year-and-a-half.

Students who attended the event thought it served its purpose of providing an alternative view of abortion.

"The media and other outlets silence this side of the story, of post-abortion women," said Tom Jensen, a junior in the College of Health Sciences.

"I just never heard anyone who had an abortion talk about it before. It's an interesting perspective," said Tommy Nelson, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 17 2005.