This week is Human Life Awareness Week --sponsored by Penn State Students For Life. Every student at this University is affected by the issue of abortion -- either through their own experience or through studying the many ethical, moral, political and intellectual aspects of this issue. Debates have raged, but what it really comes down to is that we must look at abortion for what it really is.

Abortion is the most common surgical procedure performed in the United States. In fact, I'm sure few Penn State students realize that one out of every three pregnancies in the United States ends in abortion. And these abortions are disproportionately performed on the young, poor, Blacks and Hispanics.

Abortion is an act of violence. Simply put --a woman is pregnant and expecting a child. She gets an abortion and is no longer pregnant.

The fact that the child is "pre-personal" or "insufficiently developed" is completely irrelevant. A two-week old infant cannot be shown to have any more "personality" than a pre-born "embryo." However, we have not YET legalized the killing of babies in cribs.

In our efforts to find solutions to social problems like poverty and teen pregnancy, we must not resort to abortion. Abortion is violence -- to the mother and the child. We must bring an end to this violence. We must find ACCEPTABLE solutions to our social problems.

We must fully develop and utilize the alternatives to abortion. Human Life Awareness Week is an attempt to help us to do just that by taking the first steps to educating people about the realities of abortion and its consequences.

Make a point of attending at least one of the four programs held this week. Find out what abortion REALLY is -- and how you can make a difference.