Don Simmons is passionate about unborn babies.

But he wasn’t always that way.

He thought he knew what an abortion was. It seemed very clinical, almost acceptable. But in one day’s time, Simmons’ eyes were opened to what abortion really is and his life was forever changed.

Simmons will be the featured speaker at the Women’s Life Center Friendraiser Banquet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30 at the Adams Center Ballroom at Troy University. There is no admission charge to the banquet and a few tickets will be available through today by calling the Center at 566-2880.

Dana Wilson, Center administrator, said the “Friendraiser” is designed to raise awareness about the programs of the Women’s Life Center which focus on area women in crisis and also to inform the community about the abortion issue.

“The Women’s Life Center is a non-profit organization that counsels young women who come to the Center thinking they are pregnant,” Wilson said. “We see about 50 young women each month and have a complete program that carries them through a successful pregnancy and adoption if that is the wish of the mother. Each woman receives a presentation of the Gospel message during the first session, which is of course, what we are all about.”

And that will be the pro-life message, that Simmons, who is a guard at Eastering Prison in Clio, will bring to the “friends” who come together at the Women’s Life Center Friendraiser Banquet.

“The Women’s Life Center gives these young women in crisis alternatives to abortion,” Wilson said. “I was a lot like Don. For too long, I knew about abortion but I really had no opinion about it. I thought a woman should do whatever she felt she needed to do. It was her choice. Back then, I was uninformed as to what abortion really is – execution. Now that I know, I’m definitely pro-life.”

Simmons will bring that reality to those who attend the banquet as he relates the experience that changed his thinking about abortion and gave him the passion to speak out against abortion both vocally and through his recently published book, “Unborn.”

“I chaperoned a youth group to a retreat in North Carolina and I chose to attend a one-day class on abortion,” Simmons said. “I don’t really know why except that it was an issue that was unclear to me. I thought I would see what all the whoopla was all about.”

The stories that Simmons heard were first-hand horror stories from “inside abortion.”

“One nurse who had assisted with legal abortions told stories that absolutely shocked me, just knocked me out of the saddle,” he said. “I kept thinking, this can’t be happening. Not in our world. But it is happening and we are living in a horror filled world.”

Simmons was so “horrified” by what he heard and saw that day, that he went back to his room and jotted down the first few pages that would become the opening chapter of his book, “Unborn.”

“That class was the first time that I’d been down in the trenches to see and know what actually takes place during an abortion,” he said. “It had rocked my world to know the trauma a baby undergoes during an abortion. You can all it whatever you want, but abortion is murder. In our country, we should not condone the murder of babies. We can’t be oblivious to what goes on in the womb. It is murder. ‘Abortion’ may be legal but it’s not moral or ethical and everyone needs to know the truth about abortion.”

Bob Lambert, publicity coordinator for the Women’s Life Center, said the banquet is an effort to share the truth about abortion and to bring awareness of the issue to the forefront in a community where hundreds of young women find themselves in crisis situations every year.

“We shouldn’t soft soap the issue,” he said. “We need to know the facts about abortion and accept them as truth. People need to know that abortion stops a beating heart 4,000 times a day … and they need to know how it stops a beating heart.”