After watching the nightly news, Rebecca Porter had a dream envisioning herself letting Sen. John Kerry know she had an abortion and regretted her decision.

Porter told LifeNews.com that she and a friend went to an event the Kerry campaign had scheduled in Tampa. She brought along a sign that simply read, "My abortion hurt me."

She hoped Kerry would see it, but knowing only a limited number of people were being allowed inside the event, her best prospects were to show it those attending.

"I almost didn't go because doubt and fear was beginning to set in," Porter said. "But I went to hold my sign for the people walking in. I did not go as a Bush supporter or as a Republican, but as a woman hurt by abortion."

Dozens of people walked by and saw her sign.

Some looked away. Wives talked with their husbands. Friends whispered to each other in hushed tones after passing by.

Other came to talk with her and Cindy, but few had anything negative to say.

Porter tells LifeNews.com that one detractor told her he wished the abortion had killed her. His wife elbowed him in the stomach afterwards.

"There was no protest. We were not there to say anything. Just to let our signs speak for us -- and they did, powerfully," Porter said.

The two women were finally able to go inside the event and stand at the back of the crowd. As Kerry finished his speech, he closed by saying he would guarantee that "women would have the right to choose" abortion.

Porter made her way to an area where Kerry was shaking hands.
"Then it happened," Porter explains. "He reached up to shake a hand in the back and his eyes went up to my sign. He read it and then he looked into the crowd to see who was holding it -- and he looked me directly in the eyes."

Within seconds after Kerry saw the signs, a campaign staff member approached Porter and grabbed her sign.

"You can't have that sign here," the Kerry staffer said.

The sign tore and Porter let go. After he had possession of it, the Kerry staffer "tore it to pieces" and walked away. "He wouldn't even let me have the pieces," Porter said.

Porter said Kerry was "shocked and surprised" to read the sign.

"I hope he saw my pain. I was not angry, just pleading with him to understand. You could see the shock and surprise on his face," Porter said.

Onlookers were surprised by what they saw and expressed their disagreement. One man walked over to the two women, said he was pro-life and that what happened "wasn't right."

The Kerry campaign has refused to comment on the matter.

Porter isn't pleased at the Kerry campaign's refusal to respond.

"I'm very disappointed that he will not acknowledge what happened at his rally," Porter told LifeNews.com

"As a presidential candidate for all the people -- including me -- I think he should speak to his staff and apologize to Cindy and I for their actions and guarantee that it won't happen again to other women."

Porter said other women may attend Kerry events to help him understand abortion's negative impact on women.

"My concern is for other women who may be planning on going to his other rallies. I don't want them to have their property destroyed either. I want their freedom of speech rights protected," Porter said.

Porter, who is the Florida director of Silent No More, a group that helps women share how their abortions hurt them, said she is curious to know Kerry's thoughts about her sign.

"As a supporter of abortion rights, how does he feel about the fact that abortion does hurt many women and men," Porter told LifeNews.com. "Abortion takes the life of our children and leaves many very wounded individuals."

Looking back on her experience, however, Porter is not angry.

"I was not upset. I felt like I had done what the Lord had wanted me to accomplish," she says.

"I hope [Kerry will] remember my sign and my pain in my eyes. I know there were many people laying in their beds that night thinking about their abortions."