ABORTION 'DOULAS' AND THE TWISTED MESSAGE OF THE ABORTION INDUSTRY

By Jennifer Hartline
9/11/2010

Catholic Online (http://www.catholic.org/)

This is the tiger giving you bandages for your wounds right before he mauls you

The abortion industry wants to seem caring and compassionate. But they can't have it both ways. If abortion truly is what the supporters of abortion insist it is, there is no need for a doula; there's no need for emotional support of any kind or any reason to extend compassion. This is the tiger giving you bandages for your wounds right before he mauls you, plus arranging for a "companion" to hold your hand and remind you how painless and great it's going to be.

Those who kill children in the womb know exactly what happens within their clinic walls. They can't stop themselves from admitting it. It is murder. It is cold-blooded. It is heartless. It is violent. It destroys one life and deeply wounds another. And they know it.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - I thought I had heard it all, but then I read about the abortion doulas.

Yep. Doulas - women who are trained to assist women during labor and childbirth - for abortions. The Doula Project's website says they "provide free and compassionate care and emotional, physical and informational support to people across the spectrum of pregnancy." They also now offer support to women who are having an abortion via the "abortion pill." How comprehensive of them.

In the perverse world of abortion doulas, pregnancy is a "spectrum" and it's not women any longer, but "female-bodied people." One such doula consistently refers to her patients as "pregnant people," not women. Why? Is it now demeaning to be called a woman? Can men also become pregnant? Surely men need not be considered at all in the grand scheme of abortion - pardon me - "reproductive rights." The only "people" the abortion advocates are interested in are women, so why the neutral, silly new terminology?

The whole concept of an abortion doula is oxymoronic. I thought abortion was supposed to be a great thing for women, all that freedom and choice and autonomy and such. Who needs compassion and emotional support for something so wonderful?

This is the tiger giving you bandages for your wounds right before he mauls you, plus arranging for a "companion" to hold your hand and remind you how painless and great it's going to be.

The abortion industry wants - no, needs - to seem caring and compassionate, not indifferent to a woman's feelings. They're stuck having to play both sides. On the one hand, abortion is a "legitimate medical procedure," a "choice," a "right," and simply the ending of a pregnancy. It's not a baby but a mass of insentient tissue. A non-person. No big deal.

On the other hand, when it suits their purpose they passionately describe the heart-wrenching choice some women are forced to make, and the personal and private pain they go through. They decry the interference of government into such a complex and difficult decision.

They can't have it both ways. There is absolutely nothing heart-wrenching about "terminating a pregnancy." There's nothing sad about vacuuming out a blob of insentient tissue. There's nothing heartbreaking about getting rid of a non-person. By their own definitions of the inanimate, nonviable, insentient, non-person in the uterus, they are eliminating nothing but a condition that resulted from someone's sperm getting too cozy with their egg. What's so troubling about that? But saying that out loud at fundraisers and rallies, or during political campaigns, well, that's a whole other ballgame. Talk about a public relations nightmare!

So they twist themselves into a bloody pretzel trying to perpetuate the delusion that abortion isn't murder, or cold-blooded, or heartless, or violent, or bad for women in any way. They flip-flop between being nonchalant about the normalcy, the routineness of abortion and then protective and compassionate toward the suffering women who "must" undergo such a painful procedure because they have no other options.

They insist it's so simple and safe these days, in fact, that they want "instant- abortion-at-home-in-a-pill!" dispensed long distance to women who've never even seen the doctor prescribing the meds that will cause their body to spit out the unwanted thing. (And hopefully not several liters of blood along with it.)

Yet, now they want to promote their softer side and provide women with a doula to help them deal with the unpleasantries of this completely routine yet heart-wrenching procedure, or any anxieties they might be having about ceasing to be pregnant. After all, it's emotionally draining to be pregnant this morning, and not pregnant anymore by lunch. Just imagine if there was actually a death involved!

Don't want to see that ultrasound image of your baby who's about to die? No problem, says the abortion doula. I'll stand in front of the monitor and tell you jokes to take your mind off it. Don't want to hear the sound of your child being killed? Yeah, that vacuum machine is kinda loud. I'll get you some headphones and blast Lady Gaga for you. Are those cramps getting painful? How about a massage? I'm here for you, hon. You'll be outta here real soon. Just think about all the things you'll be able to do, the dreams you can fulfill once this is over.

Abortion can't be both routine and heartbreaking. It can't be both the termination of a pregnancy, the removal of meaningless tissue and a sad, painful loss. If abortion truly is what its supporters insist it is, there is absolutely no need for a doula; there's no need for emotional support of any kind or any reason to extend compassion.

Who feels sad at the removal of an intrusive parasite in his belly? Anyone in their right mind would celebrate being rid of such an undesirable, nutrient-robbing worm. Whose heart is broken by the cessation of an unwanted medical condition? If my rheumatoid arthritis disappeared tomorrow, I would not shed a tear. If it's merely tissue, then women should be skipping in and out the door of the abortion clinic.

All we've heard from the supporters of abortion for decades is that abortion does not leave women with grief or trauma. They hiss that pro-lifers have made up the phenomenon of post-abortive stress just to make abortion look bad and sound terrible and saddle women with needless guilt.

We've no need to manufacture any lies. The truth is so much easier. The brutal facts of abortion speak for themselves. It's simply impossible to make abortion look worse than it is and equally impossible to make it look all shiny and beneficial. You can't dress up the killing of babies and make it seem pretty. Those who defend the child in the womb have the easy job. We don't have to constantly change our definition of life, of pregnancy, or invent new rationalizations for why we do what we do.

It's the abortion advocates whose job is difficult. "Abortion should be rare!" "Women need greater access!" "Post-abortive grief is a cruel ploy whipped up by those who want to deny women their rights!" "Abortion is a deeply personal and often heart-wrenching decision!" "The fetus is not a person!" "The government has no right to force a woman to carry a child!"

It's enough to make your head spin. As my mother says, "O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!" Those who support abortion on demand have got themselves in such a tangled mess of lies and contradictions that they can't even keep up with their own message.

Those who kill children in the womb know exactly what happens within their clinic walls. They can't stop themselves from admitting it. It is murder. It is cold-blooded. It is heartless. It is violent. It destroys one life and deeply wounds another. And they know it.

Jennifer Hartline is a grateful Catholic, a proud Army wife and mother of four precious children (one in Heaven). She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online. She is also a serious chocoholic. Visit her at My Chocolate Heart.

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