Her story came out in bits and pieces as we continued to talk: like so many of my patients, she had always considered herself to be against abortion and never imagined that she would wind up across from me in this counseling room. She did not think she would cope well after the procedure and she was struggling with whether it was the “right” thing for her to do. At twenty-one, she was a few years removed from legal childhood yet still dependent on her parents, and she said that they were the ones making her terminate the pregnancy. “My parents will kick me out if I have a baby,” she told me. “I’ll be homeless. I won’t have anywhere to go.”
...
Where does the patient’s constitutional right to choose an abortion intersect with the counselor’s responsibility to screen and refuse service due to perceived ambivalence or coercion?
Now, anyone with an ounce of common sense realizes that, any way you square it, letting this woman have an abortion would be a bad decision. She does not want the abortion.
A crisis pregnancy centre could have really helped her. They deal with this stuff all the time. But no no, only people involved in abortion are wise in the ways of crisis pregnancy.
And I find it very interesting that an abortion counsellor has conscience rights to turn women away from abortion, but a pro-life doctor does not. At least in the feminist mindset. Interesting.
But if you look in the comments, here is what one poor-choicer has to say:
If this were a root canal no such counseling would be needed, I'd have to convince no one of my preparedness or "mental readiness."
I seriously question whether root canals cause as much emotional damage as abortions.
As much as you may care, I don't know you and don't see you as a friend but rather the clinic staffer standing between me and the procedure I need. You are just one more hoop, one more person who has more power than I do in a decision that should boil to no one besides me.
Even if it's obvious that it's the wrong decision, but whatever! Trust women and all that. If they screw up their own lives, it's not your responsibility or anything. You're not your sister's keeper.
Life circumstances "force" people to do things all the time.
Funny how that does not include respecting a little baby's life.
But it's still the best option out of a bunch of s***** ones sometimes
So instead of offering a woman a good option, let's offer a woman a crappy one.
See why pro-life feminists say "women deserve better than abortion"?
