Stories of pro-life activists getting abortions don’t ring true
Guest post by Dr. Michael J. New
Emily Yoffe’s (pictured right) “Dear Prudence” advice column recently included a letter from a “pro-choice” woman who assisted her pro-life activist friend in obtaining an abortion.
The story sounds familiar. Very familiar. In fact, stories about pro-life activists getting abortions mysteriously pop up all the time in pro-abortion literature.
The narrative is always the same.
1) A loud, insensitive pro-life protester or sidewalk counselor gets pregnant and seeks an abortion.
2) She goes to the same clinic where she frequently protests.
3) The reaction from clinic staff ranges from puzzled to amused — but never openly hostile.
4) The abortion is performed and the clinic staff always agrees to maintain the confidentiality of the pro-lifer.
5) The pro-lifer resumes picketing or protesting.
These stories frankly fail to hold water for several reasons.
- Why would the pro-lifer obtain an abortion from the clinic she was protesting at? She would risk being noticed by the other sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors. She would also risk the clinic “outing” her. It would make far more sense to go to another clinic.
- Why would the abortion clinic perform an abortion on an avowed pro-life activist? Wouldn’t they be concerned that the pro-lifer might be a spy? Wouldn’t they be concerned that it might be some kind of sting operation?
- Why would the clinic be so eager to maintain the confidentiality of a clinic protestor?
- And in the version that appeared in Dear Prudence, the pro-lifer goes to the clinic while wearing an elaborate disguise. I doubt anyone would want to undergo an invasive surgical procedure while in disguise. Furthermore, wouldn’t clinic staff, who would be in close contact with the woman, notice the disguise? Wouldn’t they be concerned
about performing an abortion on someone who was clearly trying to conceal her identity?
In the end, Yoffe (who identifies as “pro-choice”) chose to publish this letter and encourage the the pro-choice writer to confront her pro-life friend about her apparent hypocrisy. She should have done more diligence.
[Photo of Emily Yoffe via advocate.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
And who are these people that enjoy sidewalk counseling after having abortions? Wouldn’t they just stop? It’s not like giving up the time and effort is rewarding from a social or recreational perspective. I’ve met a lot of people in the pro-life movement, but never any serious activists just there to enjoy the ride.
When I got pregnant around Christmas this past year–I could have had an abortion. Sure. But would I have gone to the clinic where I frequently side-walk counsel? NO. The escorts all know me. The other pro-lifers all know me. I’ve talked to the abortionist–he knows me too. How could I “get away” with killing my child there? I’d be outed in a heartbeat. And they’d be gleeful about it too.
These stories of pro-life aborters pop up all the time. As you said, always the same script–just happens in different states. Kinda like an urban legend.
My fave part of Frank Bruni’s “too good to be true” abortion tale: “One day she was missing. “I thought, ‘I hope she’s O.K.,’ ”
NEWSFLASH! She was okay, because, hey, she was fiction, and people who don’t exhist don’t have problems either.
So my guess is that this lovely story was also wonderfully “too good to be true”… i.e.: a lie.
Women’s Health Care = PTSD causing abortion, heinous abortifacents which cause serious life altering medical complications, the lowest standard of care on any invasive medical procedures possible to “expand access”.
Women’s Lib = Free love(sex) for men
“Choice” = abortion. because hey, “what other choice” do you need ladies, once you can get an abortion, which allows for all your wonderful dreams come true… ???
lies, lies, lies… sigh. If only…
“Why would the clinic be so eager to maintain the confidentiality of a clinic protestor?”
Um… Because sharing medical information is a great way to get yourself sued? Abortion providers may be amoral, but they aren’t stupid.
And I don’t think they are dumb enough to give an outspoken, aggressive prolifer an abortion. It seems from their point of view that such a woman would be likely to have regret, sue for malpractice, claim coercion, publicize unflattering accounts of their services, etc. Seems like they wouldn’t want to deal with that. Why would they risk it?
CityOfAngels: My fave part of Frank Bruni’s “too good to be true” abortion tale: “One day she was missing. “I thought, ‘I hope she’s O.K.,’ ”
That didn’t sound right to me, either.
While some of the stories may be false, to have 9 such instances over a span of 26 years would be a sure thing – no doubt there were a large number of abortions among pro-life protesters over that time span.
Women who self-identify as “pro-life” and “fundamentalist Christian” or “born again” end up having abortions at the rate of 15 to 20%, so 1 in 5 or 1 in 6. This is certainly a lesser rate than for US women as a whole, but it still represents significant numbers. To find an abortion protester, here and there, who ends up with an unwanted pregnancy and has an abortion would be no surprise at all.
On going to the same clinic that one had protested – could be that wanting “a familiar face” would be operative, but in general I think they’d go where they were not known.
Well, I can find a story of a pro-choice feminist growing up to become a serial rapist (and this one is actually true). So I’m sure crazier things have happened. But as Doug kindly pointed out, the numbers show that people do tend to practice what they preach. So the idea that pro-life advocates are either too stupid to realize that they can’t live without abortion, or are self-righteous hypocrites, doesn’t check out.
Navi: So I’m sure crazier things have happened.
I could gather what is actually quite a small group of my co-workers and prove that. :P
I’m not actually skeptical of the idea that pro-life activists have abortions. Have we forgotten that more than half of abortions involve coercion? The way the pro-choicer describes the incident is really bare-bones, and she describes knowing basically nothing about what motivated the pro-lifer to seek abortion.
I’m angry at Yoffe’s response (I find Yoffe to be deeply anti-child in general), because the pro-life friend is likely traumatized from the incident, and for the pro-choice friend to raise the subject as “well aren’t you such a hypocrite” would be downright cruel.
To begin with, anyone can concoct a story. Especially when it can be done anonymously..no questions asked.
If the PL person knew where the abortion mill was why would she need any help? An elaborate disguise? The story only gets better, and less believable.
DLPL is correct, patient confidentiality must be protected.
Also Doug has a point. I know our local abortionist discreetly aborted more than a few of his colleagues’ pregnant mistresses, one such colleague and his wife were members of our state RTL.
It is impossible to tell if this story is true or not.
But it does not pass the smell test. Urban legends frequently end up in those advice columns.
Of course some pro-life activists have had abortions.
Some pro-life activists even counsel on the sidewalks of the abortion clinics where they had their abortions in the past.
But to be, at present, a sidewalk counselor who decides to abort and go to the same place where one *currently* sidewalk counsels? Yeah, I’m thinking that’s a big, fat “no way.”
The likelihood of that is extremely small, and as others have said, the details given just make this story, and others like it, less and less believable.
The entire story looks botoxed. Several players could have been at work to create the deception.
99% truth is still 100% a lie.
Deluded-some clinics are staffed by people who are that stupid. Look at Hodari in michigan. Left hundreds of women’s medical files behind when he left his clinic. Just left all their information there in an unlocked building. Other times he threw their medical files into the dumpster. Illegal to do that!
So not all clinics are run by dumb abortionists and clinic workers but it has been shown a few of them are.
Hi Sydney M.
Good point. I forgot about Hodari and his dumping confidential patient information in a dumpster! One strong wind and your medical information could be flying around on the city streets.
Its not like he couldn’t afford a confidential disposal service. Didn’t he own a fleet of cars?