There are two ongoing "I had an abortion" campaigns
- let's just guess which one will get the most attention.
Just about everyone is already aware of Ms. Magazine's upcoming
front-page story that will include 1,000 petitions signed by
women who had abortions. After all, it was featured on the Drudge
Report and was a hot news story on the AOL Web site and in the
blog world.
The editor of Ms., Katherine Spillar, said more than 5,000 women
responded to the magazine's appeal for declarations from those
who had abortions that they are not ashamed of the choice they
made. The additional names will be available on the magazine's
Web site.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, "Silent No More" had women
speak of their abortions in quite a different context. On Sixth
Avenue and 49th Street, they held signs that read: "I Regret
My Abortion." The organization was founded to help women
victimized by abortion learn about the hundreds of healing
programs available around the country.
While Ms. Magazine and pro-choice advocates seem determined to
remove the shame from the abortion experience by publicizing how
common it is, they are doing little to address the traumatic
effect of the procedure. Some local Planned Parenthood chapters
are even selling "I Had an Abortion" T-shirts designed
by New York writer Jennifer Baumgartner, who says she wants to
recast the anniversary of Roe v. Wade into an "I'm Not
Sorry" day.
The Ms. Magazine article includes the story of a woman who
aborted her Down Syndrome baby. She says she does not regret
having the abortion, that she just regrets being put in the
position of having to have one. Huh?
The Ms. editors claim that this article is important at a time
when abortion is under fire even in cases of rape and incest. The
article will not, however, discuss the statistic that shows a
very low percentage of abortions fall in that category. Nor will
it present the story of Rebecca Kiessling, the family law
attorney and pro-life speaker who is a child of rape. Nor will it
admit that there are many children of rape who are not aborted
and yet live normal lives, because to do that would remind us
that rape products are human beings.
The truth is that there are many women who do regret their
abortions, and as much as the pro-choice crowd would like them to
"get over it" (as one New York columnist told a Silent
No More speaker), the death of a child is not easy to forget. I
will never forget the woman who came up to me, a total stranger,
30 years ago to coo over my brand new baby boy and then blurted
out: "I just had an abortion." She wore this strange
smile as she gazed lovingly at my son. I felt so sorry for her.
The New Republic, a left-leaning publication, published an
article online by Garance Franke-Ruta titled "Liberal
Concerns About Abortion." She wrote, "It is high time
that pro-choice advocates and their political defenders begin to
treat abortion as a public health issue, rather than just a
philosophical or political problem." The author was citing
alarming statistics about abortion being used as birth control by
minorities, the poor, and victims of abuse.
It's highly unlikely, however, that groups such as Planned
Parenthood will start warning clients who are the main source of
their income that abortion may be bad for their health or that
there's a chance that abortion may lead to sterility or breast
cancer. Full disclosure is bad for business.
Nevertheless, post-abortion trauma is a real issue that should be
addressed by all organizations concerned with the welfare of
women. Nearly 64% of post-abortion women polled say they were
pressured into having the procedure, either through physical or
psychological circumstances. A T-shirt and a magazine petition
may help pro-choice propaganda, but they merely cloud the woman's
real emotional suffering.
There will be a post-abortion symposium at St. Rita's School
tomorrow in Staten Island that is open to the public and
professionals involved in treating the syndrome, which has
largely gone untreated. The forum will feature experts in the
field addressing the concerns of the many men and women who
suffer from their abortion experiences.
Yes, I said men. Fathers whose children have been aborted are no
less devastated by guilt and pain. Central to the forum will be a
clinical, healing approach to counseling. For further
information, contact Sr. Lucy at 212-371-1011, ext. 3195.
You won't read about this campaign on Drudge.