Saturday, July 30, 2011

Treating the normal as if it's abnormal, to sell abortions

Let's look at the normal reactions to pregnancy, then at how abortion facilities use these perfectly normal, time-limited reactions to sell abortions. Since most people don't have ready access to medical journals, I'll use this web page, intended for the pregnant woman to identify the normal reactions:
For many women, accepting (or coming to terms with) the pregnancy will usually involve a mixture of positive and negative feelings about accommodating a new person in their lives. Some women will question their readiness to start a family (will there ever be a right time?). Others may focus on their own personal issues and/or family values, as they wrestle with the whole picture of being pregnant. .... Life-changing events (such as pregnancy) frequently involve immense emotional experiences and release (both positive and negative) and it is very normal to feel different at various times, as you go through this period of adjustment.
Thus we seen at merely accepting the fact that she's pregnant is something many pregnant women go through. But both prochoice writings, and "counseling" at abortion facilities as reported by women, treat this as a way to leverage abortion sales. They use statements like, "It will be as if this never happened," and other reassurances that an abortion will make the whole situation of being pregnant simply go away. 

Negative feelings are also treated as evidence that the woman will continue to reject the pregnancy, and ultimately reject the baby. they use statement like, "This will enable you to have a baby when you're ready." Statement like these are deceitful and hurtful for three reasons: 

1. They take something normal -- needing time to adjust to the idea of being pregnant, initial negative feelings -- and treat it as a reason to abort. This normal stage of pregnant is treated as evidence that the woman is "not ready" to parent. 

 2. The push for "early abortion" produces an encouragement to rush into abortion immediately, before the woman has had adequate time to process the news. This is akin to helping a person who has just suffered a disabling injury to commit suicide during the stage of initial shock. 

3. The initial and normal negative feelings about the pregnancy are treated as if they're signs of permanent inability to be happy about the impending birth of a child. 

For further readings about the normal psychology of early pregnancy, see: 

Shocked, scared, and unsure: "Discovering a new pregnancy when it has not been talked about or planned (or even when the pregnancy was intended) may bring up feelings of being shocked or overwhelmed. These are very common, immediate reactions, which can also be accompanied by feeling anxious and perhaps scared, frightened, confused and/or angry. Being pregnant when you did not intend to be can also trigger feelings of being 'out of control' and possibly feeling 'at the mercy' of your pregnancy's destiny (in a sense)." 

Anxious or concerned, teary or moody: "Many women will go through the early weeks of their pregnancy feeling anxious or concerned at different times. The reasons for this may be rational, or they may be totally illogical (all being very normal)." 

Think about how dishonest and underhanded it is to use these normal reactions to convince the public that abortion is a "need." What's more, think about how cruel it is to reinforce the woman's normal negative feelings as a means of getting an abortion sale. 

Even the most rudimentary informed consent about surgery involves telling the patient whether or not the symptoms will resolve on their own. But in abortion, this isn't done. Imagine how outraged we would be if doctors were performing tonsillectomies to treat a tonsil infection that could be treated with antibiotics. Imagine the outrage if doctors routinely performed joint replacement surgery for reactive arthritis -- which typically resolves in three to 12 months. But because of politics, doctors routinely perform drastic, permanent surgery to treat the normal, self-limiting ambivalence of early pregnancy. We need to expose this inexcusable and cruel practice at every opportunity.

4 comments:

Acyutananda said...

Thanks very much for this post. I thought I was knowledgeable enough about the ways abortion clinics sell abortions, but I hadn't seen it analyzed as "treating the normal as if it's abnormal," and that seems valid.

And I hadn't thought of the idea of normal-but-needing-time-to-adjust, which also seems very valid.

For the sake of your other readers, I'll paste here something you already saw in a comment of mine on an Equal Rights Institute page:


Linda Couri -- CONVERTED: From Abortion Provider to Pro-Life Activist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e42gurhnbpA&feature=youtu.be

LC describes in a very riveting way what the stress of being pregnant, as a student, was like for her. Suddenly she yields to the temptation to get an abortion, and at 12:16 she says of the decision, "How could anything that feels so good [in terms of giving me so much relief from my stress] not be right?"

Christina Dunigan said...

I'm turning that YouTube URL into a proper link for you. Thanks!

Linda Couri -- CONVERTED: From Abortion Provider to Pro-Life Activist

Acyutananda said...

I liked your above "Treating the normal as if it's abnormal . . ." post, and I see that you have made a lot of posts over the years. Can you identify a few of the must-reads?

Christina Dunigan said...

"Must-Reads" would depend largely on your areas of interests. There's a search box for the blog in the sidebar that can help you find what's of interest to you.

Here are a few posts that I consider particularly interesting:

"I Couldn't See How Planned Parenthood Could Redeem Themselves" -- how PP responded to the "pimp" sting tapes

Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers. Can You Really Do an Abortion Up To Birth in America?

Why Aren't Pro-Choice Groups Doing "Stings" on Abortion Clinics?

Why a 20-Week Ban is Needed to Avoid Aborting Viable Infants

NAF's Failures Since 2004 Raise Troubling Questions

How do Changing Laws Impact Abortion Mortality?

The Wendy Davis Abortion

Diane Sawyer and the Non-Story of Lawson Akpulonu

Gearing Up for When the Inevitable Happens - The abortion lobby is going to get somebody killed. How can we mitigate the damage?

How Planned Parenthood Respects Patients' Religious Beliefs

Kermit Gosnell and the Milgram Experiment