An Eastern professor will give a lecture on the concept of abortion and her experience on the subject at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Lecture Hall in Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Jeannie Ludlow, associate professor of English, said she learned an important lesson when working at an abortion clinic as a provider, and used her lesson as a topic of study.

“Pro-life and pro-choice are not real.  People’s real lives, that’s real,” Ludlow said.

She said while she worked at the clinic, she learned that pro-abortion rights and feminism did not have much to do with the lives of the patients she worked with.

The topic of her lecture does not have much agreement with the American public and across the political spectrum about what to do about unwanted pregnancy, and other abortion matters, said Charles Wharram, head of the EIU Center for the Humanities.

A faculty lecture is provided every year by a committee within the humanities department, as a form of honor.

A number of people who either applied, or who were nominated by faculty are chosen, said Wharram.

This year, Ludlow was chosen.

“It’s a way for us to showcase the kinds of scholarship people do around the college, to allow them to present their work in a public forum, and for the students, community and faculty to hear what’s going on,” he said.

Ludlow said her topic on abortion is based on the post-choice decade in the United States. She will also provide background on her studies in literature.

“What I’m arguing is that pro-life and pro-choice are really ridiculous,” Ludlow said. “They are these ridiculous extremes, and most people don’t live in those extremes.”

She said between 1992 and 2004, the U.S. was in a time where people part of the Abortion Advocacy Movement, considered themselves pro-abortion rights. It was around this time that people’s thoughts on abortion started to change.

“The way it is changing is that it is becoming less about pro-choice and more about people’s real life experiences,” Ludlow said.

During that time period, she wrote about working as an abortion clinic provider.

Ludlow explained how no one she met who came for an abortion was pro-abortion rights.

“No one ever said to me ‘Oh I’m here to have an abortion today because I’m pro-choice.’ Lots of people said ‘I’m pro-life and I’m having an abortion today’ or ‘ I believe this is murder and this is what I’m going to do’ or ‘I believe I am going to hell and this is what I need to do anyway,’” she said.

Ludlow added that believing you are going to hell for getting an abortion and doing it anyway is big and not something to be brushed off.

Her experience is what got her to think pro-life and pro-abortion rights have nothing to do with the way people determine the decisions they make about having families.

Ludlow said in her work, she is trying to show there is another “space” that is real, which has more to do with the real life experiences people go through. She said this is how people should perceive abortion, rather than through pro-life and pro-abortion rights.

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].