Posted on 11/03/2013 7:37:08 PM PST by Morgana
October 30, 2013 (LiveActionNews) - I recently read an account from a 17-year-old who was 24 weeks pregnant and was pressured by abortion clinic workers to abort her baby. The testimony appeared in the book Bitter Fruit: Women’s Experiences with Unplanned Pregnancy, Abortion, and Adoption. I did not find this book to be biased towards the pro-life position. The author seems to take, as far as is possible, a neutral stand. Nowhere in the book does she condemn abortion or claim that adoption or parenting are better options.
When 17-year-old Darla (last name not given) became pregnant, her mother wanted her to have an abortion. In Darla’s own words:
I didn’t want to do it, but it was like I was being dragged. The first thing they did was an ultrasound, and I think I was 24 weeks pregnant. So I had a week legally left.
At 24 weeks, the unborn baby was at the end of the 2nd trimester. At this time, the baby is fully formed. He or she reacts to sudden, loud noises, and, according to the Endowment for Human Development: “This response is very much like what adults and children exhibit in the same situation.” She can feel pain, and has a sense of taste. She breathes amniotic fluid. She also sleeps and dreams. REM sleep has been observed in unborn babies as early as 18 weeks.
33.6 % (over a third) of unborn babies born at 24 weeks survive. (Cara Acred The Abortion Debate (Independence Educational Publishers, 2012)
You can see pictures of babies aborted at 24 weeks here.
Darla goes on to say:
I saw her [the baby] actually on the ultrasound, of course. I was 17 years old, I wasn’t going to say, “Turn the machine around; I don’t want to see.” And when I saw her, I knew that I wasn’t going to do it.
Like many women considering abortion, seeing the baby on the ultrasound screen made her want to have her child. In many clinics, women are not allowed to look at the ultrasound for this very reason. (see also this, this, and this)
Darla says that her mother and the clinic workers argued with her about her decision to have her baby.
So we spent the whole day over there, crying and arguing with the doctors and staff like that. When it came down to signing the piece of paper that said I could die during the procedure, I said no, I wouldn’t do it. We went all the way up to the director of the clinic. They were saying it was best for me, because I was young. My mom was really pushing for it too, so they stood by her. Maybe she was trying to get people to convince me. …They were trying to convince me that it was safe, that in years nobody had died or whatever, that it was relatively safe.
The clinic workers persisted, but Darla held firm:
I went in thinking that I was going to do it, but when I saw it on the ultrasound, I couldn’t do it.… So what ended up happening was that they wanted me to sit in on a group where they explained stuff. I guess they thought they were going to trick me and take me in and do it. I don’t know, I remember a lot of stuff that just doesn’t seem right now. So I sat through the group and they said, “Okay it’s your turn; the doctor’s waiting for you.” And I said, “No I’m sorry, I’m just sitting in on this group and I’m not going to go in.” And I asked where my mother was. They stalled for a minute, and I just got up and walked out and said, “I’m not going to do it.”
Still, the coercion did not end.
So we sat outside for about an hour and a half, and three or four nurses came out at different times and said, “The doctor’s waiting, you’re ready, let’s go in, come on,” and they would take my hand and try to pull me in. And I said no, that I could not do it.
Despite the clinic workers efforts, Darla held firm. She refused to abort her baby. Eventually, the clinic workers gave up and sent her home.
Clinic workers will say that they always carefully screen women to see if they truly want to have their abortions before they actually allow her to have the procedure. In some cases, this may well be true. But in some clinics, such as the one Darla went to (the book does not reveal the name of the clinic) coercion is definitely a part of the business. It is very easy to imagine a 17-year-old girl giving in to this kind of pressure. Darla showed incredible strength and courage in resisting the clinic workers. One has to wonder how many other women went to this clinic, had second thoughts, and were coerced into having their abortions.
So much for pro-choice.
Source: Rita Townsend, Ann Perkins Bitter Fruit: Women’s Experiences of Unplanned Pregnancy, Abortion and Adoption (Alameda, California: Hunter House Inc., 1991) 39-40
I suppose the clinic wanted the money. Horrific.
I used to be friends with a woman who had a baby at just 25 weeks. It took some fairly heroic measures but her baby lived, with no major issues. Kid’s in college now.
If we want to show the world who we are, that is, Christians, we show the world that we welcome all babies, whoever they are. Would Jesus want any girl/woman to abort her baby? I don't THINK so. That baby has a God-given soul and who are we to end that innocent's life?
Muslims feel that way about babies. Abortion is EXTREMELY RARE, almost non-existant, in Muslim countries because babies are welcome. I only know that because I lived in the middle east for five years and saw it first-hand.
My Daughter’s twin son were born at 22 weeks....perfect and 22 weeks.............they lived only ten minutes and changed our lives - forever.......
My niece BD at 25 weeks he just celebrated his tenth birthday.
More than money they really wanted to commit murder in my opinion. Talk about thirsty for blood.
These people are sick and evil.
This is horrific. Who can they pressure to have an abortion.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
My nieces first child was born at 25 weeks. He is healthy and normal now, but had us really worried for the first month. Brilliant Doctors and caring nurses, I thank God for them every day.
You would never think so, but Teen Mom on MTV is interesting. Every single one of them says “I could never have killed my baby” just like this 17 yr old girl did. It seems as though as long as they have enough real information (what the fetus is truly like at what week), their natural instincts kick in.
Last time I saw it, they had a girl who had her baby, and then they showed her sister going through major depression at the same time because she had had an abortion. The message I saw was “abortion is far worse.”
Overall, of course it condones teen pregnancy. But it does have a teeny tiny redeeming quality in that they show girl after girl who couldn’t kill her baby.
She may think she is pregnant but is not sure. She asks how much an abortion is. The clinic worker has been trained to nab this client, so instead of answering the question she asks one.
"When was your last period?"
And the young woman gives a date.
The clinic worker then calculates a due date and tells the caller what her due date is.
Her worst fear is confirmed.
This is done so that the young woman will not be tempted to call another clinic. The clinic worker was trained to not answer any questions, but to grab the woman's allegiance to their clinic.
All without even running a pregnancy test.
It is a real crime that not only do they kill the babies, but they prey on a woman at a most vulnerable time of her life.
For profit.
Coercion is NOT “choice.”
In the muslim world they also teach their little children to be suicide bombers. I don’t think they know how to love their children. If they did, there would be no such thing as honor killing especially if the girl was raped. Golda Meier sp/ one of the first PM of the new Israel said it well when she said.....there will be no peace until the arabs learn to love their children more than they hate Jews.
The process for aborting these late term babies is horrific. Those who participate in them must have got their start torturing kittens or pulling wings off flies as kids. They never got away from the thrill of seeing something helpless suffer death. Their greatest thrill must be the taking from a naive girl the joy of motherhood. It is their way of punishing these girls for indulging in that dirty nasty thing of having sex with a loathsome beastly man.
This is nothing for leftists. They want to send entire families to death camps.
Despite the prevalence of terrorism among Muslims, I’d still prefer them to leftists. Leftists are completely worthless.
true but neither do leftists. Both groups are extremely evil but I’d still put Muslims slightly lower on the list.
The other countries I visited (Jordan, Egypt, Syria) were quiet and peaceful, at least for us tourists.
Tourism is big stuff there. There WERE lots of soldiers everywhere. That kept the tourists and foreigners safe. Well, at least I felt safe. I wouldn't have stayed one minute if I hadn't felt 100% safe.
Israel and the Palestinians, different story.
When one's time is up, it's up and it could happen anywhere. The good Lord has kept me alive and well for a LONG time.
Lefties are godless. How can one live on this glorious world and think that it was all an accident? Morons too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.