Lillian Adams’ words painted a vivid and gruesome picture as she related the tale of a close friend.

This friend had entered the damp, cool basement located on South University Avenue with hesitation. Thoughts of her two children and husband weighed in her mind, but she knew she could not have another child, and this was the only answer.

She handed the man $200 and stared at the unsterilized surgical instruments that lay on the tray next to the chair intended for her, and other women like her.

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After half an hour, the procedure was finished. Within months, a serious infection had developed near her uterus. The infection grew, and soon after her ovaries had to be removed. The option of having another child later in life was destroyed.

Adams, co-chairwoman of the Southern Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance, recalls her friend’s horrid situation as if it happened yesterday, as well as the time in which it took place here in Carbondale.

Women would get word of a local back-alley butcher, and go to him for an abortion, she said. There were many that died from this, many who became sterile. Hospitals were full of women who had illegal abortions and developed infections.

The time in which Adams’ friend had her experience was the 1950s, a time of malt shops, bobby socks and rock n’ roll. It was also a period in which Adams says women were secretly dying and quietly ruining their bodies for fear of public humiliation.

Terminating an unwanted pregnancy is as old as humanity, Adams said. Illegal or not, abortions will occur.

But the ruling of the 1973 case of Roe v Wade gave way to new and safer methods of abortion. It declared that statutes banning abortion infringed a woman’s Constitutional rights. This case made abortion legal in the first trimester of a pregnancy, but included restrictions during the second and third trimesters.

In the 25 years since the ruling, much focus has been given to abortions occurring in the third trimester of a pregnancy in the debate between pro-life and pro-choice. In reality, very few occur during this time unless the birth of the child causes a life-threatening situation.

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In a 1997 report released by the American Civil Liberties Union, research showed that only 1 percent of all abortions take place after the first 18 weeks, and 0.04 percent are performed in the third trimester.

Late term abortions never occur unless in drastic cases, Adams said. There was a situation where the brain of a woman’s unborn child was attached to her placenta. Had she followed through with the pregnancy, they both would have died.

Another idea in the debate is that women carelessly get pregnant and use abortion as a means of birth control.

Allison Hile, Education Director of the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, is saddened by the falsely publicized outlook of the pro-choice position.

So many people are afraid to say they are pro-choice, she said. They think admitting it would be saying that they are anti-life. We don’t advocate abortions, we advocate the right for the woman to choose what she is going to do with her body.

Hile believes there is a need for education on birth control, as well as a need for laws allowing women to make their own choices.

Rachelle Stivers is the president of Voices for Choice, a new SIUC Registered Student Organization. She agrees that many people are confused and do not understand the ramifications of overturning the Roe v Wade decision.

The same people who are trying to keep abortion illegal are the same people who are trying to keep condoms out of schools, she said. People are not going to stop having sex if abortions are outlawed.

Stivers also believes that people who are trying to enforce legislation preventing abortions interfere with a woman’s right.

How can I control my life, she asks, if I have to surrender control of my body?

Allison Hile, Lillian Adams and Rachelle Stivers will speak at the presentation Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Roe V. Wade:Legalizing Abortion 7:30 tonight at Quigley Auditorium. The free event is sponsored by the Southern Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance and Voices for Choice.