Louisiana, requires abortion clinics to post sign, see picture and gives the web address of a site that gives more information on abortion.
Here is a picture of the sign that clinics were required to post:
Planned Parenthood of Louisiana opposed the bill, claiming that the signs were “offensive.”
Why does Planned Parenthood feel that a sign telling women of their right not to be coerced and offering support offensive? Is Planned Parenthood pro-choice or pro-abortion? Do they want women to be coerced into having abortions, or be ignorant of programs in the community that can help them?
“… Mandated counseling requirements have the net effect of burdening the physician’s schedule, delaying the abortion for the patient, and making it even less likely that you will receive authentic counseling.”
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 185
Does this pro-choice activist seriously believe that allowing women the chance to learn about facts on fetal development and alternative to abortion will interfere with a woman’s rights? Look at other quotes in this section (Abortion Counseling) to learn why these laws are desperately needed.
“In Carole Joffe’s ethnographic work at an abortion clinic that performed first-trimester abortions, she found out, “the most interesting problem was how to refer to the product of the abortion. Although it was acknowledged that many clients would refer to this as “baby,” or “the pregnancy,” new counselors were, not surprisingly, urged not to use these charged terms, but instead to use the more neutral, though admittedly more awkward, ‘products of conception’ or ‘tissue.’
Wendy Simonds. Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ) 1996 p 80
Several empirical studies in the U.S. have indicated the deficiencies of current abortion counseling practices with the majority of respondents reporting insufficient information provided by the abortion counselor; insensitive, unhelpful abortion clinic personnel, with respect to providing assistance in decision-making, and the provision of misinformation, thereby contributing to increased anxiety, confusion and levels of post-abortion depression and hostility
Barnard, C. (1990), The Long Term Psychological Effects of Abortion, Portsmouth, NH: Institute for Pregnancy Loss; and Vaughan, H. (1990), Canonical Variates of Post-Abortion Syndrome, Portsmouth, NH: Institute for Pregnancy Loss.
A pro-choice author, who interviewed dozens of abortion providers, said the following:
“The abortion counselor was typically a person without medical training-who often herself had had an abortion, either legal or illegal-whose role it was the counsel the patient before the procedure, accompany her through the abortion itself, and also “advocate” for patients in general.”
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 133
Obviously, the counselors were not there to provide qualified mental health counseling for the women. Rather, they were just there to “keep her company” and be there to support her through the process. They were not trained, and were not able to spot women who might be aborting under duress, discuss the reasons for the abortion and whether or not it was right for the woman, or to talk to a woman about alternatives.
Counselors are often made available to pregnant women who are being tested to see if their babies have health issues. Author Paige Comstock Cunningham quotes writer Elizabeth Crystal saying:
“Within the medical literature there is a clear assumption that counselors are there, in effect, to help patients through the difficult process of agreeing to be tested and agreeing to abort in the event of a diagnosed defect….”
Elizabeth Kristol. “Picture Perfect: the Politics of Prenatal Testing” First Things 32 (April 1993): 24
Quoted in Paige Comstock Cunningham, Esq. “The Supreme Court and the creation of the two-dimensional woman” in Erika Bachiochi. The Cost of “Choice”: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion” (San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books, 2004)
The implication is that a woman who has an amniocentesis or other test and discovers that the baby has a handicap will abort, and the counselors are there to guide her through the process. As you can see by reading other quotes in this section, women often feel coerced into aborting babies with defects, as medical personnel pressure them to do so.
“I was deceived because I was not told the truth about what an abortion means to the life of an unborn baby. I was not told that there were other options. I was not told that at 10 weeks (which is when I had my abortion) my child was already fully formed. I was made to believe that I was doing something that was as natural as going to the dentist for teeth cleaning.”
“And Katherine Speckhard, PhD of the University of Minnesota reported that 81% of the women she surveyed said they felt victimized by the abortion process. These women felt either that they were coerced into the abortion or that important information about the pregnancy resolution and abortion procedure had been withheld.”
Journal of Social Issues 1997
Dorinda C Bordlee, ESQ “Abortion Alternative Legislation and the Law of the Gift” in Erika Bachiochi. The Cost of “Choice”: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion (San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books, 2004) on page 136
Alicia went to Planned Parenthood to see if she was pregnant.
“When my name was called, naturally my mom and husband stood up to come with me and the nurse told them they were not allowed. I asked the nurse, “not even my husband?” and she said “no, just you!” I felt very disappointed and confused.”
She went in by herself. The nurse asked her if she wanted to keep “it” if she was pregnant. She said she did.
“You can be honest with me, are being forced to keep it against your will?” I said, “Absolutely not. I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant so quickly, but if I am pregnant I want to keep my baby” and again she asked “So your husband or mom are not forcing you to keep it if you are?” I said, more aggressively and upset, “NO!”
When she was asking me if I was forced to keep the baby she looked like she was reading from a script. I remember her saying that if I kept ” it,” it would be very expensive and life changing. She was poking at the fact that I didn’t seem like I could afford to have a baby. She also asked if I was scared to say that I wanted an abortion, and that if I had any questions I could talk to someone that can ease my nerves. She never really said baby she said “it” a lot. She also mentioned that if I was pregnant depending how far a long I was that there might not even be a heartbeat.”
Alisha didn’t give the woman a chance to go on, however, She said, “excuse me, If I am pregnant I am keeping my baby. I may not be rich but I know God will make a way!” and walked out.
….
“I have not been able to shake that experience, it was very disturbing that I had someone trying to convince me to abort my baby especially after telling her over and over again that I wanted to keep my baby. I didn’t sleep for a week! I turned out not to be pregnant at that time, but I now have two amazing little boys Josué and Josiah!”
Sometimes abortion advocates say things that cannot be squared with the facts of science.
For example, when a pro-life group displayed large photos of aborted fetuses on the sides of trucks in Los Angeles, Feminist Majority Foundation Vice President Katherine Spillar was quoted saying:
“The typical abortion is done at 8 weeks or less and when we are talking about a pre-embryo the size of a grain of rice.”
She was quoted in Washington Times August 23, 2001 “A Vehicle for Change.”
According to The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th ed. Keith L. Moore, Ph.D. & T.V.N. Persaud, Md., (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998), the crown-rump length of an eight week fetus is about the size of a quarter. (Note that this measurement does not include the legs) An embryo the size of a grain of rice would be only three to four weeks old- and very few abortions are performed that early.
Here is a picture of an eight week old unborn, taken by Andrzej Zachwieja and Jan Walczewski under the direction of Professor Andrzej Skawina of Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
Incidentally, according to the Center for Disease Control cited in the MMWR, Nov.29, 2002 vol51 No55-9, 18% take place at 8 weeks with roughly 41-42% taking place later, adding up to nearly 445,000 a year.
Abortion clinic spokesperson Ellen Kreuger stated to the Winnipeg Sun (cited in Kansans for Life May 1991, p 9) that the unborn baby was
“a frog-like thing…without a heartbeat, brain, eyes, or internal organs.”
An embryo’s heart begins to beat around the 18-24th day after conception.(J.M. Tanner, G. R. Taylor, and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Growth, New York: Life Science Library, 1965) Eye development begins in the fourth week and is well underway by the sixth. (K. Moore, Before We Were Born, 3rd ed., 1989, p. 278) The brain develops very early and brain waves have been recorded by six to seven weeks after conception. (J. Goldenring, “Development of the Fetal Brain,” New England Jour. of Med., Aug. 26, 1982, p. 564) All body systems are present at 8 weeks. (Hooker & Davenport, The Prenatal Origin of Behavior, University of Kansas Press, 1952)
From a booklet entitled “Organizing for Action.” Prepared by Vicki Z. Kaplan for the National Abortion Rights Action League, 250 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019. 51 pages, no date.
“Describe how quick and safe the procedure is, how pleasant the clinic, how relaxed the patient, how the conceptus looks at ten weeks – a small bloody mass, very jelly-like, about an inch long, and weighing about 3/4 of an ounce. Absolutely no arms and legs – no “baby” at all!”
Here is a picture of a sonogram of an unborn baby at 10 weeks.
In a Planned Parenthood fact sheet, found on their website entitled “The Facts Speak Louder than ‘The Silent Scream” one statement made is:
“A fetus of 12 weeks cannot in any way be compared to a fully formed functioning person. At this stage only rudiments of the organ systems are present. The fetus is unable to sustain life outside the woman’s womb, it is incapable of conscious thought; it is incapable of essential breathing.”
Several assertions in this paragraph fly in the face of the known facts about fetal development. Even worse, the facts I am about to relate have been known to reputable scientists for decades. It is almost impossible for these statements to be the product of ignorance. They are either signs of an unbelievable amount of callous stupidity or deliberate lies.
By eight weeks, all body organs are present in the fetus. This was reported in Hooker & Davenport, The Prenatal Origin of Behavior, University of Kansas Press, 1952. Yes, 1952- and not a single study has ever contradicted this.
Further,
“By 11 weeks, all body systems are working.” “Life Before Birth,” Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 13
As for breathing:
“By 11 to 12 weeks (3 months), he [the fetus] is breathing fluid steadily and continues so until birth. At birth, he will breathe air. He does not drown by breathing fluid with-in his mother, because he obtains his oxygen from his umbilical cord. This breathing develops the organs of respiration.” “Life Before Birth,” Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 13
In addition, information recently came out that clinics were sending fetal parts, including eyes and organs, to laboratories to be experimented on. A pamphlet from a tissue harvesting company called “Opening Lines” advertised fetal tissue, including “livers less than 8 weeks for $125 (“discounted if significantly fragmented”) spleens over 8 weeks for $75, and eyes for $50-100 depending on fetal age with “40% discounts for individual eye.” (See chart below)
If fetal organs from babies under 8 weeks can be labeled and sold, then a twelve week unborn must have more than “rudiments of organs.”
And from BabyCentre.co.uk, which is a site that provides fetal development and other information for pregnant women, and is NOT a pro-life site but a neutral one:
Under the 12 week heading:
“Measuring from the crown of his head to his rump, your 2.5-inch/ 6-centimetre fetus has all his parts, from tooth buds to toenails. Your baby is busy kicking and stretching; his movements are so fluid they look like water ballet. Fingers and toes have fully separated. Now the fetus’s main task during the next six months will be to grow larger and stronger until it can survive on its own outside the womb.”
From pregnancy.org, page on week 12, here are some characteristics listed:
— Intestines move farther into your child’s body
— His or her liver begins to function – Responsible for cleansing the blood, storing nutrients, and providing needed chemicals, this is an important event!
— The pancreas begins to produce insulin
Also note:
“At nine weeks, the embryo’s ballooning brain allows it to bend its body, hiccup, and react to loud sounds. At week ten, it moves its arms, “breathes” amniotic fluid in and out, opens its jaw, and stretches. Before the first trimester is over, it yawns, sucks, and swallows, as well as feels and smells. By the end of the second trimester, it can hear; toward the end of pregnancy, it can see.”
This is from the article “Fetal Psychology” by Janet L. Hopson, Psychology Today, October 1998
These fetal development sources present quite a different picture than Planned Parenthood!
Pro-choice activist Leonard Peikoff, in his article “Abortion Rights are Pro-Life”(www.AynRand.org)says the following:
“The status of the embryo in the first trimester is the basic issue that cannot be sidestepped. The embryo is clearly pre-human; only the mystical notions of religious dogma treat this clump of cells as constituting a person… what it [the unborn] actually is during the first trimester is a mass of relatively undifferentiated cells that exist as a part of a woman’s body. If we consider what it is rather than what it may become, we must acknowledge that the embryo under three months is something far more primitive than a frog or a fish.”
Pro-Choice activists have to work hard to distort the facts of fetal development in order to convince people that the unborn baby, even when she so clearly resembles a human being, is not a living person.
