LETTERS: WOMEN DESERVE INFO

To the editor:

Our Lady's Inn is one among many agencies that provide supportive services for women facing crisis pregnancies. Women in Missouri deserve the right to know and to make informed decisions.

Recently we took in a young, pregnant woman who was on her way to an abortion clinic with $400 tucked inside her purse for the procedure. She was having a difficult time following through with the abortion, but she did not feel as though she had any other choices. A single mother, caring for two other children already, Kim was told by her boyfriend either to get an abortion or get out. Having no income and no place to go, she decided abortion was her only alternative. Fortunately for her and her unborn baby, she shared her plight with a friend who told her to call Our Lady's Inn. Instead of aborting her child, Kim was able to choose life. Since coming to Our Lady's Inn, we have been able to hook her up with prenatal care and with health care for her two other children as well. We are working with her on job training and finding an apartment of her own, and we are teaching her the skills she needs to become self-sufficient and to care for herself and her children.

Kim is one of the lucky ones. She found out about us. But think of the countless numbers of women who do not know about us or the many other agencies that will assist a woman in a crisis pregnancy. Too many women blindly enter the doors of abortion clinics not knowing there are other answers. In addition to Kim, we have frequently had women who have had previous abortions and cried in our counselors' arms, saying, "If only I had known about you before, my baby wouldn't be gone."

We do our best to spread the word about our services, but we can hardly compete with the advertising dollars of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.

The Missouri Caregivers Bill would allow women the important right to know everything before she chooses. While respecting women's rights, the Caregivers Bill would ensure women access to information regarding services available to her and to her baby.

LORETTA WAGNER, President

Our Lady's Inn

St. Louis