My Year As an Abortion Doula (Slate)

My first patient ever stares at me blankly when I say the doctor will see her soon. Her two small children treat the waiting room chairs like monkey bars; they’ve been sitting around for hours. Dee (some names have been changed throughout) is here to get laminaria inserted, the small seaweed sticks positioned in the cervix that expand upon contact with moisture, producing enough dilation to enable a second trimester abortion, which will happen tomorrow. I know I’m not succeeding at giving her the warm, confident assurance I’ve practiced in the mirror.

Women have historically supported other women through the process of childbirth, so the work of birth doulas is nothing new. But when birth doulas Lauren Mitchell and Mary Mahoney sought to bring those support practices into abortion clinics, they met immediate resistance. “To imply that women getting abortions would need something as touchy-feely as support was not accepted,” Mitchell explains. Some birth doulas were reluctant to consider the needs of women terminating pregnancies as at all similar to their patients carrying them to term. And many pro-choice doulas, doctors, and nonprofits were unwilling to acknowledge how difficult and painful many women find abortion. To some on the left, drawing any more attention to the messiness of the procedure and the decisions surrounding it would mean potentially undermining the work of the political movement.

From the article:

"The doulas I talk to about their work say things like, “I’d only say this to another doula because I know you’ll understand.” I think it’s because we’ve all seen the tiny ear whorls, the patients who have second thoughts, and the ones who get abortions for reasons that make you feel uncomfortable. These images are the stuff of pro-life campaigns, the ones that try to make women change their minds."

"Like a lot of the doulas I spoke to, New is concerned that the pro-choice movement’s reliance on positive narratives about abortion, born of a sense of protection, is actually counterproductive."

So this is actually a very rare admission by someone pro-abortion that many women having abortions actually feel a human life is being taken, and the abortionists are well-aware of this but suppress this truth to protect the "right."

"Honesty is a core principle of being a doula. But I quickly learn that you do whatever you need to and mostly that is to tell the truth, but sometimes you are dishonest. In the beginning, I shadow a more experienced doula as she reassures a patient that the woman in the next room screaming wildly is not here for the same procedure, though, of course, she is. Sometimes kindness is more important than truth, but if a patient wants to know how big the fetus is, I won’t lie."

I got slightly nauseous just reading about the first paragraphs. It's still appalling to me after ALL THE YEARS of abortion mills: killing babies, human beings, all the 10 little toes and tiny fists. There will be a price to pay for all those women and their abortion doctors.

WOMEN have been the mass murderers of our world since abortion...all those innocent new little souls returned to God before having a chance to take even a SINGLE breath.

Appalling. I just shake my hear and try not to...fixate.

Some birth doulas were reluctant to consider the needs of women terminating pregnancies as at all similar to their patients carrying them to term. And many pro-choice doulas, doctors, and nonprofits were unwilling to acknowledge how difficult and painful many women find abortion. To some on the left, drawing any more attention to the messiness of the procedure and the decisions surrounding it would mean potentially undermining the work of the political movement.

Pro-aborts NEVER did believe in making abortion "rare", just legal and safe. I think it is getting harder and harder to rationalize the killing of one's own child. As Pro-life forces continue to successfully educate both men/boys and women/girls of the reality of the unique and precious human life that exists after conception and the responsibility they have to ensure that life is respected at all stages, the more difficult it will be for them to be deceived when faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Those in the abortion "business" - and it is a multi-Billion dollar one - will try to hinder such education as they are not at all "pro-choice". They won't do anything to discourage abortion and lose out on the income.

It should be obvious that "it's just a blob of tissue" canard no longer works as an incentive to escape an unwanted pregnancy. Sure, there will always be rationalizers for whom no amount of knowledge will sway them from what they demand to be done for them - to free them from the consequences of the choices they have already made. But it IS heartening to see that as more and more people acknowledge the innocent lives taken in abortions, it will become less the option of choice. I pray that in my lifetime we will see that abortion becomes unthinkable for everyone.

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