UK’s top abortion exec to sidewalk counselors: Aborting women are the “wrong audience”
They are handed leaflets with fanciful claims about how abortion will raise their risk of cancer and mental illness. They are shown ‘life-size’ models of their unborn baby and subjected to ‘pavement counselling’ to encourage them to ‘choose life.’ For the present at least, women are no longer tormented with ‘gifts’ of little knitted baby bootees, a feature of some previous vigils.
The problem with the protests is this: the protesters oppose abortion in principle — but their actions are against women who want to consider abortion — not in principle — but as a private medical solution to a personal, individual problem….
Of course, society should debate the rights and wrongs of abortion. There are places for that and persons who are ready and willing to engage with the issues. Outside a clinic is the wrong place, and women in immediate need of care are the wrong audience.
~ Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK’s largest independent abortion provider, CNN, March 19
[Photo via 40 Days for Life]
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.
“Of course, society should debate the rights and wrongs of abortion. There are places for that and persons who are ready and willing to engage with the issues. Outside a clinic is the wrong place, and women in immediate need of care are the wrong audience.”
Mm-hmm. “Because, despite our lofty rhetorical attempts to sound fair-minded, we’ve already settled in our own minds the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’: we’re ‘right’, and they’re ‘wrong’, and abortions are ‘care’ by definition, no matter what anyone thinks.”
Irrational, self-serving rubbish.
We are really getting to them aren’t we??
:)
The women going in there absolutely need care. Paying someone to scrape and suck their baby out of them and then tell them how every little thing is gonna be alright IS NOT CARE.
Women need to see the truth (ie, your baby is not a blob of cells). I do not believe women’s heart s and minds are not changed by ultrasounds, sidewalk counseling, and pray-ers.
I so agree. There are places to debate the rights and wrongs of slavery. Outside a slave auction is the wrong place and the plantation owners buying slaves are the wrong audience. Self-serving rubbish is right.
But because I also agree that women going into abortion clinics need “care” I am going to be there to offer them REAL CARE. And some women take us up on the offer and you just can’t stand that can you, Ann?
Ann’s problem is that she’s question-begging in her characterization of what’s being interfered with.
I love this: “
the protesters oppose abortion in principle” —
In other words, something they can do in the quiet of their own homes, since it’s a mere Platonic “principle” … “but their actions are against women who want to consider abortion — not in principle — but as a private medical solution to a personal, individual problem”
— In other words, when they act they’re concerning themselves with the act itself.
LOL
OK, so what does she expect — that those who believe unborn children should not be slaughtered are obliged to merely discourse with others who disagree with them in principle? Wow, the underground railroad would have been derailed pretty quickly if that wisdom had prevailed in the States back in the day. I wonder where Ann would be today if women’s suffrage in her country had adopted such a notion.
“The problem with these people is that they believe their principles enough to act on them! People are supposed to be milquetoast dweebs who go ‘eew, that’s bad!’ You’re not supposed to actually, like, do stuff! Eew, these people are so bad!” (voice of Randall, of Honey Badger fame)
Well so much for formatting. :-/
I do NOT like the new editing. How about implementing TinyMCE or somesuch? This stuff is not rocket science . . .
Rasqual, you’re so right. I think the protesters/pray-ers’ PRESENCE is so important.
Last time I checked people ‘in immediate need’ are *exactly* the kind of people who need whatever message you’re offering. You don’t go to the rich to offer food assistance, you go to the people in immediate need of food. You don’t go to the unpregnant to offer pregnancy assistance, you go to those in the midst of a crisis pregnancy!
“Ooh, look at that — Pro-lifer right out there on the sidewalk, talking to — OH! Did you see that? The cop asked her to step back a foot. Pro-lifer don’t give a sh*t, Pro-lifer backs up and keeps right on talking. Now see, here comes an escort, trying to take Pro-lifer’s space. Pro-lifer just keeps right on — OH! Did you see that? Pro-lifer’s praying for the escort! Pro-lifer’s bad-ass. Pro-lifer don’t give a sh*t, she just keeps right on praying. Nothing can stop Pro-lifer when she’s praying…”
LOL
Tenacious folk, Pro-lifers. ;-)
For anyone actually unacquainted with the meme (is that possible?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
Amen Jespren!!
First of all Ms. Furedi is wrong about her fundamental characterization of the men and women who support all human life: they are not protestors, they are prayer groups, helpers, counsellors of good will, examples of love in action. The fact Ms. Furedi doesn’t see the difference between protestors and Good Samaritans is the reason why she denounces the Good Samaritans.
Who is going to offer these women a shoulder to cry on, a place to stay, and clothes for their baby should the Mothers decide to keep their babies? Who is going to drive them to local Pregnancy Crisis Centre when they come out crying from the abortion mill saying that don’t want to abort their baby? Who will give them a stock of baby clothes, diapers and formula? It certainly won’t be the abortionist demanding $500 to $1,000 so that he can kill their child. It will be these Good Samaritans. If Ms. Furedi was pro-women she would be demanding more Good Samaritans and not less. But those who wish not to see will not see. She understands the issues but does not understand.
We all can’t afford to fly to Africa to help the poor in that country. Not all of us can abandon our families in order to go Central America to help the impoverished there but many can help the single Mothers in America. And what is Ms. Furedi’s contribution to the topic of helping US mothers: don’t do it, just talk about it with people like her.
little knitted baby bootees . . .
OH THE HORROR!
Thanks Rasqual – I didn’t know the meme!!
LOL, I kno, rite, phillymiss? “Tormented” with baby booties? HAHAHAHA.
How on earth does someone get to a place where opposing a specific action in principle does not mean that peaceful steps should be taken to oppose it in practice? Even if you look at something like smoking, which many people oppose in principle, even those who don’t or won’t legislate against it often take steps of some sort to oppose it in practice. Urging loved ones not to smoke, to quit smoking, donating to anti-smoking campaigns, offering support and encouragement to those who are trying to quit. Opposing abortion is not some abstract, nebulous, sophisticated, philosophical construct. It has concrete applications that must be concretely applied. And those applications begin and end with people who are thinking about abortion. Period.
One can have principles, as long as one doesn’t act upon them… right, Ann Furedi?
BTW – when did you step out of George Orwell’s famous work?
I love it when people who have no principles tell others what to do with theirs.
What makes you human?
Is is falling in love?
A heart beat? Or is it an opposable thumb, a language, a healthy body, a skin-tone?
Is it a note in your voice, a special talent, or a special accent-that makes you uniquely human, an individual human-a citizen of a body of men, of humanity-of “mankinde”-a man? Or is it your mother’s love that credits you a human?
If so, then how is she protected, so that she can care?
If that is all it is, then are you human? Or is it your ability to get angry?
Is it your ability to get incensed-about the unjust abuse of the innocent-about the death of a child-and is it anger of the loss of innocence? Or is the anger from simply knowing, that youwere told that innocence was lost-and therefore-your now obligated to care-in the human sense of the word-that makes us human?
What is it, that makes us human?
Is it my ability to vote that makes me more than a blob of cells to a politician?
The ability to cry-bull—-, that makes me a counter to the pro-“choice” mandater?
Is it my vote-is that it?
Is it my ability to speak up for justice-to not want unjust choices put on my plate for me to have to either deny or consume? Or is it my ability to say-no thanks, “I don’t want that as a choice.” And if I am not able to speak up for my health-then is it another man’s idea of what is safe and healthy that asserts my human ‘being’? Is it another man’s idea of compassion, that makes me human? Is it the freedom to act on reason that defines humanity, or is it the ability to reason? Is a child in the womb unreasoning when he moves away from cannula in order to simply be human a moment longer. What is it, that makes you human-that moves you, that moves me, that moves us?
It’s your DNA that makes you human. As far as “human” in the sense of being the special species on earth that we are, it’s our brains – our tool-using and tool-making brains, and our ability and drive to pass information from older people to younger.
Doug,
It’s just too bad those younger humans growing in utero never get the chance to have those tools passed on to them. :(
Thanks be to God my edit function finally works! Woohoo!
I am so thankful to the founders of 40 Days for Life. They have really pushed the pro-life visibility and inspired so many people to get out and pray in public. Lots of people who get their feet wet doing a 40 Days vigil go on to help in crisis pregnancy centers and/or do sidewalk counseling.
Shame on me for not acting on my beliefs many years before I did. Now that I see what we’ve gained and what progress we are now making, I’m sorry for not beginning sooner. Abortion might be closer to its end if I hadn’t been so unproductive for so long. The anger that we are seeing from the abortionists and their advocates proves to me that if we had only acted sooner, more lives would have been saved. The anger inspires me. We must be having a profound effect on the abortion industry for them to be so outraged.
How sad, to be outraged that some people look at a tiny little human and are moved to compassion. How sad to sweep away a human being’s dignity with your attitude and then butcher him with your tools. This is not a philosophical debate. This is a life and death issue affecting our entire species. Are we going to be a civilization who cares about the weak and the disadvantaged? Or, are we going to be a civilization that tramples the weak so we can engage in our selfish, personal ambitions?
I’ve made my choice. I choose life.
Well said, ninek! :D
Translation: “Outside a clinic is the wrong place for it reduces our daily bank deposits and hurts our profit margins. These women are the wrong audience for they’re supposed to be our customers and cash cows.”
Actually, thinking over the original quote reminds me: we do need to work harder on the conversion of ordinary ob/gyn’s that refer for abortions. I don’t think they’re always doing it for political reasons: I think they do it for malpractice-insurance-premium reasons. Not all suprise pregnancies are unwanted, but combine a suprise plus a doctor’s doom-n-gloom prognosis plus a doctor’s referral to an abortion facility equals disaster for an unborn child. When abortion was illegal, most of the time a mother & child were given pre-natal care and tried to prepare for the child’s birth. With legal abortion, it seems that if there are any risk factors, doctors are referring for abortion just to avoid a difficult pregnancy and/or difficult birth. Making abortion illegal again will mean that doctors will have to offer better care. AND, we need to change the attitude of many Americans that if something goes wrong in life: sue someone!
I’m growing more convinced that, in addition to sidewalk counseling, we need to address this problem.
I think the pro-life movement has to start promoting parenthood. Making parenthood cool and the thing to do for young adults. I think the early twenties is the time when people should be getting married and starting families. Now that most of us are no longer uptight about talking about sex we can educate our children about how to be responsible, how to care for the opposite sex, and how to get ready for marriage, and how marriage and a family are not incompatible with acquiring your career goals. Parenthood needs to be made cool again and celebrated as the best choice that it is. For most folk, including pro-choicers. their families are the most satisfying part of their lives.
We all know what disfunctional families are, and many have experienced them; however, it is no longer cosidered shameful to have experienced some kind of disfunction. The time is ripe for the promotion of responsible parenthood – chosen parenthood. Everyone who has kids knows one needs energy to raise kids. I am not saying it is wrong to have kids at an older age but just that it shouldn’t be set as the new normal.
The prolife message should not only promote chastity, but it should promote parenthood – for everyone, not just pregnant Moms on their way to the abortion mill.
We should also make sure we educate our kids about sex. By this I mean frank discussions that clearly state that sex results in pregnancies and children. The discussion should be about sex education and not about birth control eductation which is currently all the rage.
Just to follow up with the post above:
Sex education, which will include discussion about chastity, will explain that it is not chastity until marriage, but chastity or marriage – words and ideas matter. As Chrisitans who live in the modern, we cannot tell our children to wait until marriage if marriage is not going to happen until they are 30!!!!!!. Waiting till thirty seems like a lifetime away for most teenagers. Thirty is close to being half-way to the grave for most of these kids. We need to ba able to say to the fifeteen yearold girl or boy that if that want to have sex they can, as long as they get married first!!! I am sure this idea probably seems very novel, and perhaps shocking, for some liberal parents. More importantly, however, it is shocking to fifeteen year-olds.
If the Right doesn’t develop a sex education curriculm then the education providing by PP and the left will be the only educative/narrative about sex.
Lastly, and I do not know if these has been done before, but in any event I think there needs to be an ongoing local, state, and federal strategy/campaign that says there is no shame in pregnancy – a “No Shame” campaign. In fact pro-choicers and even Planned Parenthood should support this campaign. This is one of the choices available to all women, and NO woman should have to feel shame for one of her decisions or being pregnant – pro-lifers and pro-choicers I think agree on this. This campaingn could go a long way to helping those dems and libs who always said that they wanted abortion to be “rare.” If they do not support this kind of campaign let them give their reasons.
Doe: It’s just too bad those younger humans growing in utero never get the chance to have those tools passed on to them.
Why, Doe? Unless we really have a need for an unlimited number of people on earth – which I assert is far from true – there will come a time when most people aren’t going to agree with what you said.
Doug: “Unless we really have a need for an unlimited number of people on earth … there will come a time”
Now THERE’S a non sequitur. Unless there’s a need there will come a time? Huh?
And of COURSE it’s far from true that there’s a need for an “unlimited” number of people on earth.
I don’t know what you were trying to say, but I’d urge another attempt.
Oh Geez, Rasqual, it wasn’t that bad of a question. ;)