You’ve seen those horrid little shop fronts run by the Religious Right. You know, the ones that offer ‘counselling’ to pregnant women. They say that they are there to help save women from the trauma they would undergo if they were to terminate their pregnancy by having an abortion.
It’s all pure bullshit though! The real trauma for a young woman is not so much from having an abortion, as these zealous creeps suggest, but rather is the trauma that would occur if the pregnant woman was to go on with her pregnancy and then give it up for adoption. It is about the worst trauma that a woman can undergo in her life, and yet the Religious Right ‘counsellors’ will pretend that giving their baby away will actually be less traumatic to the young woman than having an abortion would be. They are liars.
Yes, the Religious Right are like snakes in the grass of the Garden of Eden offering up a sweet apple to the innocent and inexperienced younger women of America. I personally despise these people with all my heart, and can only hope that their syrupy lies will never effect the lives of any young women that live around me as friends, family, and neighbors. Unfortunately, I know that many young women in our society will be bullied by the obnoxious and inconsiderate religious rhetoric of the Christian Right. The Christian Right thrives on child abuse, and their favorite targets are young child/ women in their early teens. Especially those that have gotten pregnant due to being denied access to appropriate birth control and appropriate education about their own bodies and their own psyches.
There are several national organizations that help battle the propaganda of the Religious Right about adoption supposedly being the best way to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Birth Mothers Exploited by Adoption is one of those. They struggle to help themselves, to help also to tell the truth to young pregnant women and their friends, and to also help those adopted children that want to find their birth parents, since the laws often make it next to impossible for adopted children to do this, even when they become adults!
Here are some of the tales of tragedy and trauma coming to those women that were coerced into giving away their children. This is where the real trauma is, and it is not from having an abortion. Birth Mothers Exploited by Adoption could just as well named themselves ‘Young Women Bullied, Brutalized, and Exploited by Right Wing Religion’. That would be even more to the point.
Oh, Tony. The lies perpetuated by organizations such as Planned Parenthood rival anything coming out of the Colorado Springs Pregnancy Center or similar organizations. Yes, it’s somewhat painful for a young woman to see ultrasound images of her tiny fetus and may make the decision to abort a little bit harder…but so it should be. Abortion terminates the life of a human being, a child…it’s not an appendectomy. It shouldn’t be shrouded in secrecy and soft music. Planned Parenthood should provide the exact same information to anyone considering an abortion. Instead, they treat pregnancy as a little medical condition that can be taken care of very easily. Don’t think. Don’t understand. Don’t care. Just write the check please.
You evaded the issue about the so-called ‘counselling’ at these ‘Pregnancy Centers’. They are there to talk nonsense to young women, and that nonsense is to tell them that having an abortion is traumatic to the woman, whereas giving up their baby to strangers supposedly would be much better and much easier. That’s absolutely totally backward from the truth, Marie. In fact, it’s total bullshit.
I have seen women who have had their children taken away from them, and I have seen plenty of women that have had abortions, too. Currently anti-abortion Christians are trying to convince the world that abortion leads to psychological trauma for young women who have abortions, when in most cases it does no such thing (unless you think you are going to Hell for having one). But certainly giving up a child for adoption at birth is a horribly traumatic and destructive event to a young mother. All the religious bullshit in the world can hardly help much with this basic reality.
These same Christian anti-abortion moralists, though, then go on and lie to young pregnant women that it would be best for the woman to carry their fetus to term and give the baby, when born, up to others. Disgusting! There is absolutely no comparison to what losing one’s born baby does to a mother to what having an abortion would do to her.
Giving up a live child away as an adoption is a million times more traumatic than having an abortion is, and I think that in your heart you know that, too, Marie. An embryo is not a live child, and most rational people completely understand the difference. It takes religious doctrine to make normally sane people deny the obvious.
It’s time to recognize the damage that pressuring young women to give up live babies for adoption actually does. It does damage to all involved in this sordid bartering of human life, including the children born. Shame on the Christian Right for putting children and mothers through what they do. The secret truth is that counselling young pregnant women not to have an abortion most often is coupled with encouraging her to give up her baby for adoption when she feels that she cannot adequately care for a child if it is born.
That is the real lack of morality involved here, and it is the Christian Right Wingers that are immoral and not the pregnant women who want to have an abortion. Lying to young women and telling them it is not going to be painful to give up a child for adoption is cruel and immoral. And trying to make abortion that others that don’t share your religious dogmas might choose, impossible or illegal to obtain, is cruel and immoral, too. It is a form of abuse of women and children, in fact.
I guess I agree that abortion is simpler and less traumatic than adoption. Unless, of course, you happen to be the baby.
Babies are not aborted, Marie. You cannot abort a baby since babies are already born and living on their own.
Most abortions are done on clumps of cells. It might even be an ectopic pregnancy that is aborted. I once sat in a waiting room with my wife before such a procedure was done. The main trauma she had was worrying if ‘her baby’ (as the Religious Right might label it) was cancerous or not?
I volunteered at a pregnancy resource center. In seven years, only one person adopted her baby and she was adamant about it too. Most do decide to parent, some abort and very few adopt. Many also decide to carry before they come. The pregnancy resource center was audited and was really solid. The effects of abortion depend on the person’s values and the situation. Some Christians are amazing and others are uncompassionate and cruel. Sorry you have been hurt by Christians! They are not representing Christ well.