Skip to comments.
Pretty Stones and Dead Babies: Abortion's New Language
BreakPoint ^
| 1 Oct 03
| Chuck Colson
Posted on 10/01/2003 4:23:11 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
There's an abortion clinic in Pittsburgh that defies all the stereotypes. The walls are lined with pink paper hearts containing heartfelt messages from parents to their aborted children. Family members are encouraged to write in a journal in the waiting room. And at the end of every pre-abortion counseling session, the patient is given a pretty, colorful stone to take with her.
What does a pretty, colorful stone have to do with abortion? The answer proves to be as bizarre as the question.
This novel approach to abortion is the trademark of a group of abortion clinics called the November Gang. A story in the September GLAMOUR magazine explains that at these clinics, "intensive counseling is offered to patients . . . Despite being staunchly pro-choice, counselors venture more willingly into areas like grief and regret than at most abortion clinics." They talk with the women about religious and psychological issues and let the women talk about their feelings toward their unborn babies.
Though the story doesn't say so, I wouldn't be surprised if the members of the November Gang are simply copying the counseling-centered approach pioneered by pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. But what the abortion clinic counselors are counseling is very different.
The GLAMOUR article reports, "One of the questions November Gang clinics sometimes ask patients is, Can you see abortion as a 'loving act' toward your children and yourself?" Faced with that query, "a lot of them are totally taken aback," says clinic director Debi Jackson. "Then they actually think about it, and they're like, 'Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I do love this child, but I can't [have] it right now.'" If a woman asks if God will forgive her, a counselor will turn the question back to her: "'Do you think there are any things that God considers completely unforgivable?'"
What these abortion counselors are doing is coaching patients to twist their own words, emotions, and moral understanding so that they can feel justified doing something that they're clearly acknowledging is wrong. In language full of sentiment, these women are gently encouraged to put their own short-term needs first, and not to think about what's best both for their babies and themselves in the long run.
The pink hearts signed "Mommy"; the informal baptism ceremonies that some women hold after their abortions; the stones that the women are told to "imbue . . . with whatever meaning they choose" -- all these things meant to heal and comfort are rendered duplicitous by the brutal act taking place. All the pink paper hearts in the world don't change the fact that abortion is taking a life with the mother's permission.
Pro-life advocates and counselors have been using the language of help and healing for a long time now and with great results. We need to keep doing that, but we also need to point out that language can be deadly when it is not used in service of the truth. Women do need to know that comfort and forgiveness are always available through Christ, if repentance is sincere. But they also need to understand that a child's life for a pretty, colorful stone is a very bad deal.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: abortion; abortuary; baptism; charlescolson
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-29 next last
Just when you think the pro-aborts couldn't get any sicker...
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." --Isaiah 5:20
To: agenda_express; BA63; banjo joe; Believer 1; billbears; ChewedGum; Cordova Belle; cyphergirl; ...
Combination Pro-life/BreakPoint Ping!If anyone wants on or off either ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
2
posted on
10/01/2003 4:25:02 PM PDT
by
Mr. Silverback
(Free Republic--Heartland Values, Think Tank Intellect.)
To: Mr. Silverback
If a woman asks if God will forgive her, a counselor will turn the question back to her: "'Do you think there are any things that God considers completely unforgivable?'" The exemption of guilt ploy doesn't make these living beings any less dead.
Wonder if the gals make jewelry out of the stones, or maybe ornaments for their car's rear-view mirrors?
I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. S. These people can't possibly get any more sicker than they are.
3
posted on
10/01/2003 4:31:28 PM PDT
by
jla
(http://hillarytalks.blogspot.com)
To: Mr. Silverback
Crazy...just crazy...but you know how they work..its just a "mass" or "tissue".
If you dont want a child...keep your damn knees together...
To: Mr. Silverback
Evil used to slink about seeing whom it could devour. Now it struts about and preens itself in public. And why not? The American people have lost the discernment to see the evil for what it is. Oh how very effective have been the mantras 1) 'a woman's right to choose' (a serial killer), and 2) 'abortion is a woman's reproductive right' (inferring serial killing is somehow a 'contraceptive' measure). Stupid, selfish Americans; no wonder liberals are doing everything they can to erase the name GOD from the public mind and taking every opportunity to remove any right to contemplate openly that there is a God ... because, trust me, He is getting very P.O.ed at America as we collectively abrot His blessings upon US. As we serially slaughter our posterity, we cancel our future bit by bit.
5
posted on
10/01/2003 4:33:10 PM PDT
by
MHGinTN
(If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
To: Mr. Silverback
When winds of conscience waft about thy head,
And brooks of Rue do babble in thy brain,
Seek not thy quietude in lonely bed,
Nor utter careful words to stay thy pain.
For though words chosen well may ease the smart,
And turn the wretched, hateful wrong to right,
Alas! In sooth, they cannot touch the heart,
Nor kill Remorse, which flies upon the night,
With Satan, the Accuser, who will steal,
Betimes to whisper softly in thine ears,
Of dark deeds done; of Rack, of Cord, of Wheel,
And play upon the pipes of hidden fears. Thus torn asunder, none shall see thy strife;
Thy spotted hand; thy bloody, dripping knife.
To: Mr. Silverback
Abortionists arent Doctors , they are killers with legitimacy.
7
posted on
10/01/2003 4:36:53 PM PDT
by
sgtbono2002
(I aint wrong, I aint sorry , and I am probably going to do it again.)
To: jla
"Do you think there are any things that God considers completely unforgivable?" Reply:
"Forgivable, counselor? Then you are saying that abortion is a sin?"
To: jla
Very sad, all of it.
9
posted on
10/01/2003 4:46:54 PM PDT
by
Chemnitz
(Support the poorest of the poor, the unborn.)
To: All
Ever since I heard of this new technology, I've maintained that it is the Stealth Bomber that is going to zoom in under the pro-death crowd's radar and nuke them... once a woman sees what is really in her womb, it ceases to be a "tissue mass" and becomes... a baby. Her baby.
10
posted on
10/01/2003 4:57:41 PM PDT
by
backhoe
To: Mr. Silverback
11
posted on
10/01/2003 5:06:16 PM PDT
by
Oztrich Boy
(tag under renovation)
To: Mr. Silverback
Just when you think the pro-aborts couldn't get any sicker...The abortionists and the supporters are bad enough. However, 99.9% of the shame belongs to the parent(s).
12
posted on
10/01/2003 5:24:41 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: Mr. Silverback
Sooooo......
Instead of executing people who kill abortionists, we should make the perps paint stones a pretty color of pink? "Sorry your abortionist husband is dead, but the killer did say he was sorry and, look at this cute rock just full of happy feelings!"
13
posted on
10/01/2003 5:26:25 PM PDT
by
Fudd
To: Fudd
Notice how the media treat any and every America-hating terrorist as a "freedom fighter," whose point-of-view we should consider. Contrast that to how the media doesn't ask us to consider the abortion doctor's murderer's p.o.v.
14
posted on
10/01/2003 5:31:50 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: Mr. Silverback
"intensive counseling is offered to patients .
------------------------
A type of shrewd desensitizion of conscience.
15
posted on
10/01/2003 5:33:33 PM PDT
by
RLK
To: RLK
George Orwell, call your office.
L
16
posted on
10/01/2003 5:37:57 PM PDT
by
Lurker
("To expect the government to save you is to be a bystander in your own fate." Mark Steyn)
To: Mr. Silverback
What these abortion counselors are doing is coaching patients to twist their own words, emotions, and moral understanding so that they can feel justified
Brainwashing 101
"Here, have this lovely Pet Rock instead of a child. It's so much more practical."
17
posted on
10/01/2003 5:58:40 PM PDT
by
visualops
(Two Wrongs don't make a right- they make the Democratic Ticket for 2004!)
To: Mr. Silverback
Where will these "counselors" be when the women they co-erced into this horrible act realise what they have done? To turn the forgiveness of our Lord against his most defenseless and innocent creations should earn these "people" their own circle in hell.
This practice is sick,sad,and worst of all,well thought out. Pure evil.
To: Mr. Silverback
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." --Isaiah 5:20
Yes, these are the words I keep thinking of, in this our modern world. It applies to so many, and yet this article indicates this evil attitude has gone even further than many of us could ever imagine.
The story is like something out of 1984. Remember the last line?
SPOILER ALERT FOR ANY WHO HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK
STOP READING NOW
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
"He loved Big Brother."
And, in like manner, these desperate, hysterical women are being mind-f*cked to believe that "They love their babies".
And for this they get a rock. Brightly colored!
I better work harder to be saved, because if I have to spend eternity with this group, I'll have to kill myself.
19
posted on
10/01/2003 6:02:53 PM PDT
by
jocon307
(Apologies McClintock supporters.)
To: Fudd
Dang, that is an extremely good and insightful point!
20
posted on
10/01/2003 6:06:28 PM PDT
by
Mr. Silverback
(Free Republic--Heartland Values, Think Tank Intellect.)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-29 next last
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.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson