For decades, Corrine Ruskey kept -- what she called -- "a dirty, little secret."

Actually, it was two.

The Ohio native had two abortions as a young woman. Today, over two decades later, she is an anti-abortion activist and one of almost 700 volunteers with the local 40 Days for Life campaign.

"I moved here just over a year ago and learned about the campaign one Sunday at church," she said. "It was like I was being given a push."

The "push" was to talk about her abortions, something Ruskey had never done. "I grew up in an abusive household, and started doing drugs, alcohol and sex when I was young," she said. "Then I found myself pregnant."

Ruskey's stepfather told her if she had the child, nobody would want either of them, calling Ruskey "damaged goods."

"I was 19," she said. "He gave me the money and told me to have an abortion."

Ruskey went by herself to a reproductive clinic in Ohio and had the abortion. It was never spoke of again in her home. But Ruskey didn't change her behavior, trying to fill "this huge hole" with more drugs, more alcohol, more sex.

When Ruskey discovered she was pregnant again, she approached her mother.

"I remember her sitting on the edge of the bed and in her harshest voice she said, 'I've got my own (expletive) problems. This one's yours.'"

Ruskey returned to the clinic for the abortion, yet something was different.

"I must have been more aware this time," she said. "I heard the suctioning. I heard something like twigs breaking. I was mortified and started crying and the nurse scolded me to hold still."

Life didn't change for Ruskey, and her poor choices escalated. At 23, Ruskey discovered she was pregnant for the third time in four years.

"I went to the abortion clinic, again by myself, and the doctor examined me, told me I was too far along and to go home," she said.

Ruskey made an appointment with another doctor who said she was only a few weeks along and asked her what she wanted to do.

"It was the first time anyone suggested I had a choice," she said. "I believe it was God's way of saying, 'Let's make a right out of this wrong.'"

A family took Ruskey in and she gave birth to her only child, a special needs infant.

"I wondered if I had made the right choice to give her life when she was born and discovered she was different," she said. "Now, I know it was the right thing."

Ruskey, and her husband Doug, are among the volunteers who have prayed outside the Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa offices in Sioux City during the local 40 Days for Life campaign, Sept. 23 to Nov. 1. The participants may only be on public property and a yellow line defines where they can approach vehicles in the center's driveway.

"My job is not to single-handedly bring down Planned Parenthood," Ruskey said. "My job is to pray and talk to women about their choices. I talked to a young woman recently and told her she had other options. We cried together.

"I know I felt so alone back then," she said. "They need to know they're not alone."