They said it.
From a study where numerous postabortion women were interviewed:
“Most women report that there was no counseling available to them before or after their abortions.”
Helen Susan Edelman, “Safe to Talk: Abortion Narratives as a Rite of Return,” Journal of American Culture 19, no. 4 (1996)
One possible reason why counseling is not done in many abortion clinics is that it does not bring in revenue. (also here)
In many cases where there was counseling,it was merely a sales pitch.
Share on FacebookWhen Carolyn Kasdorf became pregnant as a teenager, she was afraid to let anyone at her Christian school or church know. Also, her parents had always warned her not to come home pregnant. So she turned to Planned Parenthood for help. She tells her story:
“Feeling I had nowhere to go, I turned to Planned Parenthood and ultimately chose abortion. At first, I struggled with the morality of the decision.
“Is it a baby?” I asked.
The counselor gave me all the answers. “No, it’s not a baby; it’s just cartilage like your ear. It’s a blob of tissue.”
Wendy Williams, Ann Caldwell Empty Arms: More Than 60 Life-Giving Stories of Hope from the Devastation of Abortion (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Living Ink Books, 2005) 98 – 100
Later, she had a second abortion. It was not until many years later that she came to regret her abortions.
The baby above is not cartilage.
Share on FacebookLinda Keener Thomas remembers what she was told by the abortion clinic she called. She was pregnant and in college:
“Abortion seemed to be my only choice. It would solve everything. So I called a clinic for information and asked the lady, “Is it a baby?”
“No, honey, it’s just tissue. After all, you want to finish school, don’t you?”
I clung to that statement like a drowning person clutching a life preserver, repeating it over and over until I almost believed it. But deep in my heart I knew the truth that it was a baby, my baby.
Wendy Williams, Ann Caldwell Empty Arms: More Than 60 Life-Giving Stories of Hope from the Devastation of Abortion (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Living Ink Books, 2005) 143
Her baby was 20 weeks along and looked like this.
Hardly “just tissue.”
Share on FacebookIn a study, a person explains why she is against late term abortion (after 20 weeks). She has the facts wrong on abortion:
A: It is a person, she would just be killing a human person if she had an abortion. Yeah, it would be, it would be manslaughter after so many months, because it is human, it has a heart, it has feet. It has legs. Everything – a brain.
Q: How about before that time?
A: It’s just a blob, it’s not a person because it’s not fully developed yet. It doesn’t have the important parts yet. You would only be killing a blob.”
Judith G. Smetana Concepts of Self and Morality: Women’s Reasoning about Abortion (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1982) 128 – 129
This woman supports abortion because she has her facts wrong. The heart of the baby starts beating in the third week.
Brain waves can be measured in the 6th week.
The baby looks like this at 8 weeks:
At this time in pregnancy, you can count every finger and toe.
Share on FacebookIn an interview, a teenager named Greg explains why he thinks abortion is OK:
A: If you kill it before it’s born and early, I don’t think they should do it like just before it’s born and it’s starting to get its brains and it’s all perfect like a little baby, but if it’s just getting formed and it’s not totally a baby yet, maybe.…
Q: When do you think it becomes an equal human life?
A: When it starts getting formed – at about six months. When it’s not formed, it’s just a little spermy thing.”
Judith G. Smetana Concepts of Self and Morality: Women’s Reasoning about Abortion (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1982) 128
In reality, an unborn baby is formed by the time he or she is seven weeks old – long before 6 months:
The baby has a brain giving off waves at only 6 weeks.
Greg’s opinion is based on misconceptions about preborn babies and their development.
Share on FacebookFrom an author who observed abortions and did research on abortion:
“It can happen that it is the doctor who is arguing for an abortion and the patient who is trying to make a case against it. “I don’t really want an abortion,” said a 30 year-old patient who had contracted German measles in early pregnancy to the registrar at the Hammersmith Hospital. “It is your duty to the state to have an abortion,” he replied. Doctors tend to be directional, yes…They may also be very pro-abortion.
Indeed, since abortion has been legalized, they may be more likely to be pro-abortion, since it is the legal and easy way out of a pregnancy problem. If a woman has a child with the support of her doctor, and the child turns out to have a problem – say, a physical or mental handicap – the doctor may afterwards be blamed…Whereas if the woman has an abortion, the doctor has no further responsibility whatsoever. Therefore, it can be in the interest of the doctor to lean towards abortion.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 264
Share on FacebookFrom one former abortion worker:
“In my facilities, I always gave options counseling. Of course you make the abortion the most appealing. I told them about adoption and about foster care and about (when there was welfare) assistance. The typical way it would go is, “Well, you know you can place your baby out for adoption” but then, in the same breath, you would say, “That’s an option available to you, but you also have to realize that there’s going to be a baby of yours out here somewhere in the world you will never see again. At least with abortion you know what’s happened. You can go on with your life.”…
The longer I was in it, the less I cared, so I really didn’t care what my conscience said. My conscience was totally numb anyway. But what it did do was public relations wise. You were able, when a reporter or TV crew came, to pull out a packet of information for the patients to read and they received it. So what can anybody say? Publicly it looked good – in reality it was another tool that was used to force a woman into an abortion. It’s typical – I would give them an option and then shoot it down. The only option you didn’t shoot down, obviously, was abortion.
Richard and Rhonda White Confronting Abortion Distortions (Xulon Press, 2013) 61
Share on FacebookDr. Roslyn Stephens, abortionist, said the following to a patient identified as Leslie:
“This one, you know you’re only six weeks, you know the foetus is only tiny- it’s not developed yet.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 172
At 6 weeks after conception, the embryo has a heartbeat and brainwaves. Here is a picture of a preborn baby at a little over 6 weeks
Dr. Shirley Bond, an anesthetist who works in an abortion clinic, writes about the lack of counseling for adoption in the abortion clinic where she works.
“I think the counseling for adoption is abysmal – it’s virtually nonexistent. Sometimes adoption is raised all right, but in such a negative way – “I don’t suppose you want it adopted”, kind of thing. Or “Have you thought about adoption?” And that is adoption counselling.”
Most of the pregnancy counselling, Dr. Bond points out, is “done by people who are very pro-abortion. Basically, it’s geared to pro-abortion. I don’t think there are enough people around who know about adoption, so women are put off the whole procedure….I just think the whole climate about adoption is wrong in this country. It’s negative….
Adoption is not fashionable. Abortion is fashionable. You can sit and have a cup of tea with someone who will say they have had an abortion and no one thinks anything of it. But if a woman says she has placed her child for adoption, people are shocked. “What a terrible thing to do!” is the attitude.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 88-89
One woman named Patti M tells her abortion story:
“John [the baby’s father] suggested we get married and keep the baby. I wanted to wait and do it right. I counseled with a woman at a Planned Parenthood clinic and told her that I wanted an abortion. She gave me a list of abortion clinics… I did ask about the development of the fetus, and she told me it was just tissue at this point.…
The abortion wasn’t physically painful, but I was surprised by my emotions – I could not stop crying. Tears rolled down my face the whole morning and I didn’t know why. I wanted this abortion; I was glad I didn’t have to have a baby when I wasn’t ready.
I met John in the waiting room when it was over, and he asked, “Why the tears?” I laughed it off… We never discussed the abortion. It was over.”
When her 3rd child was born, after she married John. But:
“One afternoon while I sat rocking Daniel, the realization of what I had done hit ne. I cried, wiped my tears, and went on with my duties as wife and mother.”
When she told a friend about the abortion 3 yrs later:
“She accepted me, cried with me, and loved me. Later, as grief rolled over me, I couldn’t stop the flow of tears. I cried every day, all day, even in the night. I finally sought professional counseling to deal with the fact that I had killed one of my babies.…
My husband and I still cannot discuss it; it is too painful for us.”
Wendy Williams, Ann Caldwell Empty Arms: More Than 60 Life-Giving Stories of Hope from the Devastation of Abortion (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Living Ink Books, 2005) 30-31
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