By Blaine Stum
“Trust women.” This is a button that was often worn by Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered by Scott Roeder for providing women with access to abortion. It is such a simple and powerful sentiment and yet forty two years after the Supreme Court handed down Roe v Wade, our society does not heed such wisdom, to everyones detriment.
When we do not trust women’ choices, the results are horrid, unjust and deadly: In the early 20th century low income women desperate to get an abortion turned to unqualified abortion providers to get the job done, or decided to take matters into their own hands. Doctors who practiced in clinics before Roe v Wade have shared ample horror stories of women who poisoned themselves, douched with toxic chemicals or inserted sharp objects into their vagina to terminate their pregnancy. Women who survived often faced a life full of medical ailments that came about as a result of the unsafe procedure, and death was not infrequent: It is estimated that prior to Roe v Wade some 5,000 women died every year in the United States due to undergoing unsafe abortion procedures.
With clinics that offer access to abortion unavailable to large swaths of the population, and numerous legislative efforts to further restrict access to abortion and control women’s reproductive choices, this is the world many women in this country live in today. Women living in low income areas of Texas have started purchasing drugs like misoprostol on the black market, and often take higher doses than what is recommended or ingest the pills in unsafe ways. Do-It-Yourself support hotlines have popped up in places where providers are sparse or nonexistent. Some women have resorted to even more desperate measures: in 2009 a young woman in Utah paid a man $150 to beat her in the hopes that it would induce an abortion.
The response to these events has often been a greater push for abortion restrictions or outright criminalization; but this will only contribute to rise of more back-alley clinics, DIY hotlines and shady black market drug deals. The antidote to this trend is simple: trust women. It will create a better world for everyone.
Blaine the question should be can we trust planned parenthood and other abortion providers? The answer is a big fat no. They are only in it for the money and will tell a young vulnerable woman anything for them to agree to have an abortion. How can a woman be “trusted” to make a good choice when the one’s who provide the service cannot be trusted. Also, look at how many women who’s lives have been devastated because they trusted the so called “experts”.
Planned Parenthood is so much more than providing abortions. Scott, have you ever been with a woman at PP and can back up your claim that they “tell a young vulnerable woman anything for them to agree to have an abortion?”
Actually JoAnna, I have spoke with several women who have gone through an abortion and was told what was needed for them to be convinced to have an abortion. JoAnna, have you ever spoken with a woman who has contemplated suicide because of a decision she made many years prior because she was not told the truth of how an abortion could really affect her? I have. JoAnna, have you ever spoken with a women who let herself go down a road of destructive behavior as her only way to deal with the hurt and pain caused from her abortion? I have. Planned Parenthood is an abortion mill with other services they provide.
Yes Scott, I have been with suicidal women because of the choice they made to have an abortion and Yes Scott, I have been with women who have traveled down very dark roads because of that choice. Scott, there are just as many women who have no regret about abortions as there are who do. Please don’t lump all of them into the same category. Planned Parenthood is NOT an abortion mill but you are certainly free to believe whatever you want. It comes down to choice. A choice that only a woman gets to make about her own body.
JoAnna, give those women time and many will have regret, sorrow and pain over their decision. Yes, there will be some who simply do not care that they destroyed a little baby and I truly feel sorry for them. Let’s be very clear regarding planned parenthood. They indeed are an abortion mill! How many millions of babies have they murdered in the last 40+ years? Even though abortion is legal (how sad for those men on the supreme court back then) lets look at how wicked they are. Hitler was responsible for the death of how many Jews and other minority groups? PP has far exceeded that and people will call Hitler one of the most wicked and evil men who ever lived, but Planned Parenthood is rewarded by the government in the tune of over 500 million dollars a year from tax paying citizens. Please, tell me again how wonderful PP is?
@disqus_mUR0XR28oW:disqus. Comparing Hitler to Planned Parenthood is called one thing and one thing only. A logical fallacy. In which you use a figure so entrenched in emotion and so loaded, as you have done in all of your previous comments in order to browbeat those with different opinions into semantic submission with your overbearing righteousness. It’s doubtful logic is your strong suit though, or critical thinking. Your plan seems to be appealing to emotions and fears. But hey. let’s talk about facts, shall we, statistics? Planned Parenthood, is in no small part responsible for helping prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. This includes teen pregnancy. Thanks to birth control aside from abortion. Abortion is, again, not the number one service PP provides. Check your facts, straight shooter. It’s also proven that giving everyone adequate sexual education is also importantly effective. If by “so-called experts” you’re talking about decades of scientific research.
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/04/planned-parenthood/
If I don’t bring emotion into the conversation then we become de-sensitized to the murder of all these beautiful unborn children. I compare pp to hitler because they both enjoy the benefits of their labors. Hitlers was to create a certain race and pp enjoys the money that comes in. I know you don’t like what I have to say but I am not the one who will stand before Jesus and be held accountable for this atrocity and as a Christ follower if evil is not revealed for what it is then I am not doing what a Christian is called to do which is expose the evil.
If you use the word brow beat then I suspect I hit a nerve. My comments are matter of fact and not laced with anything more. I care deeply about the women hurt by abortion as I have friends who have gone through an abortion and still to this day feel the pain. But those (pp abortionists and others involved) who are deceived by the enemy (satan) but are acting out of their own free will are people who I pity and hope they come to a saving relationship with Jesus.
Have you considered what will happen to your soul when you die?
“My comments are matter of fact and not laced with anything more…” Except misogyny, hatred, logical fallacies, etc. etc.
Scott: I actually happen to know many PP employees and board members (in the Pacific Northwest) quite well. To suggest that they are “in it for the money” and don’t care about their patients is a bold accusation to make. I trust you have evidence of this? Or are you just saying this because you don’t agree with a small portion of what PP does?
I say this Blaine because I have been personally attacked by the pp in Spokane. I ask you if what they are doing is so right why would they get someone fired for trying to speak to the women and give them literature that they are not getting inside pp? The more women/people are educated about the effects abortion has on women the more women will choose to have the baby which means pp begins losing money. Why are so many pp being closed throughout the country right now? Now, I will rephrase something, I believe that there are employees who truly believe they are helping women and what I should of said is the leadership of pp is in it only for the money. It is greed that drives them. So I correct myself for using a broad brush stroke.
I ask you have you read anything from Abby Johnson regarding her time at pp, you may actually have to face the truth and see pp for what they truly are.
You say “Trust women” and then give a list of actions some women take that reflect an inability to make wise choices. I am not sure I get your logic. We are in the midst of a number of criminal cases around here that have to do with women leaving their kids in the car or home unattended. This year a woman threw her kids over a bridge. Many stay in abusive or addictive patterns of life that perpetuate abuse and dysfunction in kids lives. The foster care system in WA is overflowing with kids that have been taken from women who can’t be trusted with their own kids. In my mind ‘trusting women’ isn’t a cure all for abortion or parenthood.
Eric: The situations I describe are what happens when someone is driven to take action under extreme duress and desperation; they don’t reflect some sort of innate inability to make wise decisions. They also serve as a reminder that criminalizing abortion, as some “pro-life” folks would like to see, would not solve anything, it would only drive abortion underground.
I’d also like to read a pro-abortion article from a local, SpokaneFAVS connected and public woman in our circle, who has had one or multiple abortions to write/speak as an advocate. I want to hear her too. I don’t want to read about her or what she might say. Please speak up and tell us from your experience. I think this issue needs first hand testimony not politicized or religious rhetoric from conservatives or progressives.
Well said Eric. I believe it would be overwhelming to hear what women who have had abortions from say 20-40 years ago would say regarding their “choice.”
Seems weird to determine which choices women make are wise or unwise without knowing the women and being a part of their lives.
Neal, I would encourage you to read some books where women who have had abortions speak about what they have gone through since having an abortion. Unfortunately these women are in such panic mode that they seldom take the time to research what could very well happen to them if they go down the road of abortion. It is very sad all the while PP is raking in the money off their future pain and suffering as well as the pain and suffering of that precious little life that they are destroying inside the womb.
Scott: That some women regret their decision does not in any way mean all, or even most, women do; nor does their regret invalidate the choices of others. No group is a monolith.
Blaine, I believe if research was done throughout the whole time abortion has been legal you would find that not just some but a majority of the women have silently suffered because of their “choice.” However, there could never be accurate research because so many women who have had abortions never talk about it and as I just said, they suffer in silence.
Do they “suffer in silence”, or do they not talk about it because it’s a personal matter that doesn’t require your opinion?
Thank you for writing this piece, Blaine. Women need to be able to make good decisions regarding their health care which are informed.
As the grandson of a holocaust survivor and the son of a holocaust studies professor, I love that you invoked hitler because you really tipped your hand. I can compare conservative religious leaders to
Hitler because of the incalculable suffering of lgbt folks, but that doesn’t mean that comparison makes any logical sense.
Murder is murder neal whether it was hitler or organizations like planned parenthood.
Also, Saying that women who are okay with having had an abortion just haven’t had enough time to fully understand their choice is amazingly invalidating.