NEW YORK—In December, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in connection with the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, announced cash prizes for the best “personal stories of women who have benefited from that Supreme Court decision.”

In an effort to keep abortion legal and to “never forget that freedom requires constant vigilance,” Planned Parenthood called its poster and artwork contest “Behind Every Choice is a Story.”

“Each entrant can share the satisfaction and pride of participating in this national contest celebrating 30 years of choice,” a Planned Parenthood press release stated.

But Florida resident and convert to Catholicism Elizabeth Phelps, who had her first abortion exactly 30 years ago this January, said the contest sponsors might want to know that lifelong sterility was the real legacy of her choice.

“I certainly didn't have a success story,” said Phelps, who planned to join other women harmed by abortion in the Silent No More march on Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, immediately following the more popular March for Life.

In 1973, the same year abortion was legalized, Phelps' first abortion resulted in a perforated uterus and the doctor abandoned the procedure, necessitating corrective surgery and causing a miscarriage one week later. A second abortion in 1981 was even more disastrous: It led to a hysterectomy after a doctor told Phelps she had a double uterus and the abortion procedure needed to be repeated.

“I also had pelvic inflammatory disease and most of my organs were stuck together, according to the doctor who performed the hysterectomy,” Phelps said. She told her story to Florida law-makers last year in an effort to help promote passage of the Women's Health and Safety Act as it made its way through the state's legislative process. The bill attempted to raise the level of safety of abortions in Florida to a level similar to surgical procedures done in doctors' offices and outpatient facilities.

Phelps, 47, is now a practicing Catholic who credits her turnaround to Rachel's Vineyard Ministries, the post-abortion training and healing ministry that has served women and couples dealing with post-abortion syndrome throughout North America and abroad. She looks back on her 21 years of marriage with no children and says reflecting on that gave her the courage to speak publicly about the dangers of abortion.

Even though Florida's Women's Health and Safety Act failed last year, Phelps said she wanted people to know how much damage abortion can cause and get help for those men and women still suffering from its aftermath.

“Not that the pain ever really goes away, but it does get better after Jesus touches your life and heals your broken heart,” she said.

Not all states have the same requirements for mandatory reporting of information required by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

“If we have better reporting, we can track the complications and trends related to abortions,” noted Patricia Chivers, former respect life coordinator for the Tallahassee-based Florida Catholic Conference and who currently works for Georgia Respect Life.

At least 30 other states have better reporting measures than does Florida, according to Chivers. But even as the soul begins to heal, abortion can continue to damage a woman's health long after the procedure. Phelps was diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C in 1994, which she believes is due to the complications caused by her abortions.

Her most recent liver biopsy was taken in January 2001, and doctors say the disease, which accounts for the majority of liver transplants in the United States, is progressing slowly.

“But the peace of Christ is something no one can take away from me,” Phelps said. “Christ has truly manifested his divinity in my life and continues to bless me.”

Phelps' spiritual healing began in earnest in 1994, when she made a pilgrimage to Rome and Medjugorje. Three months later, through a priest intermediary and friend, she met Dr. Theresa Burke, a psychotherapist and founder of Rachel's Vineyard Ministries.

Burke's new book, Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion, includes some of Phelps' story, along with those of many other women and men who have suffered abortion's aftermath.

“My life has not been the same since that day,” Phelps said of the Rachel's Vineyard weekend retreat she attended. “The healing that took place in my heart and soul is beyond words. The Holy Spirit truly goes into the slums of our souls and brings forth a new dawning.”

Standing before Florida lawmakers last February, Phelps had prepared a written text of her story to help further protection of women of childbearing years and their rights to fair and equal treatment through medical practices. But the time frame for her remarks was shortened and Phelps had to condense her point: She thought she had good doctors and that the abortion procedure was safe. The abortions might have been legal, but there was nothing safe about them, she told lawmakers.

“It is assumed that clinics are regulated as other facilities that perform similar procedures,” she said. “A dentist's office has more state-imposed regulations than an abortion clinic. We owe it to the women of the state of Florida to protect them as they would be protected at any other place performing comparable surgery.”

Today, Phelps, who works at Our Daily Bread Catholic bookstore in Jacksonville Beach, lives with her husband in the knowledge that they can't have a family of their own. Maybe that cross, that burden, is a blessing for other women, she reasons.

“Since I don't have small children at home who could maybe be hurt by it, I am one who can speak out,” she said. “Even to this day, there is that little tiny glimmer of hope that, though there is no way I could conceive, somehow I could have a child. Every day I pray for my two children in heaven. I pray for my children's intercession in my life.”

Tom Tracy writes from West Palm Beach, Florida.