Numerous women have told the protesters and me that they are fighting cancer and must terminate their pregnancy to begin chemo. This confession seems to make the protesters even nastier.

The noise and the gruesome signs seem to become a blur and my focus centers on one thing: get the patient in the door.

The thing that struck me most was the men who came up to me and said, “Thank you so much for sharing your story. I would have had no idea why a woman would need to have an abortion after 20 weeks a pregnancy and it makes complete sense.” I also had a woman tell me that her friend had gone through something very similar but then had decided to not terminate and all of the pain that she went through making that decision.

I remember protesters. Because we rehearsed at the Planned Parenthood, there would be protesters holding up signs when my mom or dad would be driving me into rehearsal. When we had opportunity to perform at the Planned Parenthood national luncheon, there were tons of protestors outside of the hotel holding up signs of fetuses. I didn’t really… I wasn’t afraid of them. I don’t know why. I acknowledged them, but I felt like they couldn’t hurt me.

We wore fake gold wedding bands because some congressmen wouldn’t meet with us unless we appeared to be married.