Daily Egyptian

Factoid: For more information about the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, go to www.morcrc.org.

The Rev. Rebecca Turner receives phone calls every day from women faced with one of the toughest decisions of their lives.

They are women contemplating abortion.

Eyes became teary and sighs were let out as Turner described some of those women during a speech at the Quigley Hall auditorium Friday. Sitting on a tabletop, she told the crowd of about 40 of a few of the cases she has come across as executive director of the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

There was a woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer and told she could not be operated on unless she had an abortion. A young girl was drugged at a party and had no idea who impregnated her. Another was happily married and discovered her baby would be born without a brain.

"Each story is unique and defies any stereotype," Turner said. "Whatever stereotypes you have about women who get abortions, they're wrong."

Turner was invited to SIUC by University Christian Ministries to address abortion as a religious and secular topic in a lecture called "Faithfully Pro-Choice." She expounded on extenuating circumstances she said makes abortion more than a matter of faith.

"Let's be honest about the integration of our religious beliefs and what is simply, medically, scientifically, true," Turner said. "Religious people are biologically the same as non-religious people. Religious people have libidos. Religious people engage in sex. Religious people use contraceptives and forget to use contraceptives. Religious people get raped and get STDs. And, yes, religious people have abortions."

One of the prevalent factors in the abortion debate, Turner said, is the varying ideas on when life really begins. Each denomination has its own stance on the matter, making agreement far from achievable.

"I'm a devout Christian and I am split on the idea of abortion," said Josh Thomas, a sophomore studying photography from Aurora. "Other religions have a view set in stone, but it's all a matter of interpretation for Christians. There is no mention of the word 'abortion' in the Bible."

Turner said that religion ties so heavily into the abortion debate that pro-life U.S. Supreme Court justices threaten the ruling of the landmark Roe v. Wade case, which legalized abortion in 1973. If the case is brought into reconsideration, Turner said the nation would be set back decades.

"If abortion becomes illegal, we know from history that women will be maimed at the hands of back alley butchers," she said. "There is not a question of whether or not abortion will exist or whether it will happen, it is a question of where it will happen, under what conditions it will happen."

Clara Taylor, a 72-year-old Murphysboro resident, remembers when abortion was illegal and witnessed the desperation of young women with unwanted pregnancies.

"A girl in my high school died after going to a back alley butcher," Taylor said. "She thought that was her only hope. Abortion being legal at least provides some sort of safety or health provision for women in that situation."