Women give gripping testimonies on abortion By Mike Latona/Catholic Courier May 5, 2008
FAIRPORT -- Jennifer Burch struggled to compose herself as she began her first public account of having gone through three abortions.
"I have a lot of emotion," she acknowledged May 3 from the gazebo stand at Vincent Kennelley Park.
Burch appeared on behalf of "Silent No More," a national movement that decries abortion through the stories of people who have lived the experience. The morning demonstration saw several of the approximately 25 participants brandish such signs as "A Pregnant Woman Needs Support, Not Abortion," "I Regret My Abortion" and "I Regret Lost Fatherhood" while motorists and pedestrians passed through the village's congested downtown where Main Street crosses the Erie Canal.
In her stirring testimony, Burch described experiencing her first abortion nearly three decades ago as a 19-year-old college student. Two more abortions followed during young adulthood.