Many churches and organizations will be celebrating life and denouncing abortion in all of its form in today's USA Today. President Bush hailed a group of pro-life demonstrators and told them that there has to be more than legislative victories established in the fight for life. There has to be changes in the hearts of people.

 I think that Mr. Bush was dead on with that statement. So many people are hardhearted in regard to the abortion issues. So many can't see beyond the argument of when life begins. Then there is a woman's right to control her own body.  It is the same old arguments and in most cases you are either on one side of the issue or the other and I have never been ever to change a pro-choice supporters stance on the issue until a few days ago.

 I was listening to Christian radio in my area and the issue about abortion came up. The topic of discussion was a group of priests that have taken on the cause for changing peoples minds about abortion and I was completely fascinated by this. These priests developed a web site on which featured photographs of aborted fetuses at various stages of development, including the abominable partial birth abortion. It is a horrific site to behold. I could not get these pictures out of my mind for most  of the day.

 The priests invite everyone who believes that he/she is a supporter of abortion, to take a visit to the web site and view each and everyone of the pictures that are on the site. If a person has a pulse and any feeling at all, he would have to take pause and be sobered by what he sees. The web site is http://www.priestsforlife.org  Whether you think you are certain in your convictions about being pro-choice or not, I invite you to take a look at this web page.

 Regarding the lady I met recently, we had a lively debate about abortion at an Arabica Coffee House. The discussion had all of the same elements they always contain. She threw the scientific determinations about when life actually begins at me and I rebutted. Fortunately, I had my laptop on hand. I thought of the Priests for Life site. I asked the woman if she would be willing to look at the page. I informed her of the contents and she agreed to look. I took her to the page. I have to admit that I was astonished at the reaction that she had. Her face became flush and she couldn't speak. She told me she had to go and that she didn't have to time to debate the issue any further. To my chagrin, thirty minutes later, she returned to the coffee house and came to my table and just sat down.

 I could never had prepared for what was going to happen at that moment. The lady told me that she had left and spent the last half hour sick in the bathroom.  She confided to me that she had had an abortion six months prior. I was feeling so many emotions at that moment. I was flabbergasted. I felt empathy. I also felt alarm because I didn't know anything about this woman and she didn't know anything about me. We were just two people that ended up talking in a coffee shop. Yet, there I was, listening to her confess a personal choice she had made to me.

 The lady and I spent a couple of hours talking at that Arabica and it was a time I won't soon forget. She assured me that she was going to promote the Priest for Life internet page to others. I am not deluded into believing that the page will touch everyone in such a dramatic sense. My hope is that it would dispel the widespread indifference that exists regarding abortion. If more people would stop viewing abortion as a method of contraception. The priests would have accomplished something wonderful for life.