July 1, 2008
IMAGINE HOW SURPRISED WE WERE TO DISCOVER...:
The Abortion Counseling Conundrum: Pro-choice activists have come to embrace the idea that many women who've had abortions can benefit from non-ideological counseling. So why are the groups that provide such counseling having so much trouble raising money? (Dana Goldstein, June 30, 2008, American Prospect)
While most doctors agree so-called "Post Abortion Syndrome" is a myth, there is no doubt that dealing with an unplanned pregnancy can lead to anxiety and depression for some women. [...]"So in 2006, Pro-Choice Resources began hosting Emerge, a six-week secular support group for women who'd had abortions -- the first pro-choice after-abortion support group in the nation. And in San Francisco eight years ago, five women in their twenties and thirties who'd had abortions launched Exhale, a national telephone hotline offering non-ideological counseling to post-abortive women. Both groups are treading uncharted ground; nationwide, almost every support group and talk line for post-abortive women is sponsored by religious groups that oppose abortion rights.
Pro-choice leaders initially worried that discussing abortion's after effects would play into Christian right talking points. But both organizations have track records of success. Since 2002, Exhale has served 15,000 women on its hotline, and while Emerge is a local group that has reached only a few dozen people, pro-choice groups across the country are using it as a model for new post-abortion counseling services, Madsen says.
Nevertheless, both Exhale and Emerge are in danger of going under. The problem? Lack of funding from health foundations scared to tackle abortion and from pro-choice donors worried about discussing abortion's psychological complications.
...that pro-abortionists don't care about the health of the mother, just killing her baby. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2008 3:21 PM
De nada, money spent on women's mental health is money not spent on abortions.
Posted by: oj at July 1, 2008 8:01 PMSpeaking of mental health -- as bad as it must be for these women who kill their children, how screwed up are the folks in the abortion mills themselves who spend their days slaughtering the innocent?
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at July 1, 2008 8:45 PMHave you listened to them take the calls for race specific abortion donations? They're soul dead.
Posted by: oj at July 1, 2008 11:08 PMThe reason these groups have difficulty in attracting funding is that they undermine the belief that abortion is a good thing, not a bad thing. The "pro-choice" people suffer from these contradictions, but prefer not to dwell upon them. To them, abortion is a "right", but even though rights are things we value, this particular right is supposed to be "safe, legal and rare." Why rare?
If DRF truly believes he/she is "pro-choice" and not "pro-abortion" then for those women who choose adoption or to raise the child themselves, what support do Planned Parenthood and others provide to assist in the exercise of those choices? Clearly, for philosophic and economic reasons, Planned Parenthood only supports abortion, not "choice."
Moreover, why does Planned Parenthood deny women the information to exercise an informed choice? That is, why is the ultrasound monitor turned away from the woman during the ultrasound exam? Again, it is to advance the pro-abortion agenda of the organization.
People such as DRF can persist in their illusion that they are "pro-choice" since that apparently assuages the conscience, but the reality is, of course, otherwise.
Maybe pro-abortion people don't, but pro-choice people do. Want to know how to tell the difference? A pro-choice person will defend a woman's right to continue a pregnancy just as fiercely as her right to terminate it. That's me, and it sounds like that's the people in these organizations.
As to why they're not getting money? One reason: Reproductive rights are under seige form so many different directions that the organizations that provide contraception and abortion services and the lobbying groups that keep these services legal need the money more.
Another reason: I hadn't heard about these groups until they started making the news a few days ago. Thanks for helping to let people know.
Posted by: DRF at July 1, 2008 7:51 PM