In the comboxes below, DRF comments:
What about the women and girls who are forced to continue pregnancies that they do not want? What about the women and girls who are subject to violence just for getting pregnant in the first place? Murder is already illegal. Doctors having sex with their patients is already punishable. Holding a gun to your daughter’s head is already a crime. Recriminalizing a necessary medical procedure is not the way to solve these problems.
Welcome DRF, thanks for stopping by. You make some valid points.
The focus of the site is not about making abortion illegal.The focus of this site is to show how what was supposed to be a women’s right has become more of another method to control and abuse women. While I am pretty sure it attracts and is most likely written by (although I really am just speculating, I don’t want to make that assumption) many pro-lifers who believe abortion is murder, the message here is about the fact that many women are being coerced psychologically and even violently into aborting against their will. If you are pro-life or pro-choice, coercing women into abortion is unacceptable. Am I correct in believing that pro-choice means just that, it is a women’s choice what to do, and that choice should not be limited to abortion OR if she decides on abortion, she should feel it is totally her decision?
Many of the examples given are of the violent aspect of coercion into abortion, and may seem extreme, but as Peony blogged about before, homicide is becoming the leading cause of death of pregnant women. She also linked toto this WaPo article about this scary trend. It is a slippery slope, once one type of abuse becomes common, people become desensitized, and what you see is a step worse the next time around. Murder aside, I can say that many of the women I know who had abortions had people around them pressing hard on them to have abortions. I know a few women who opted not to abort, such as myself, who had tons of pressure to abort, but for some reason they held fast to their decisions, perhaps realizing the people who were pressuring them were not going to be around to pick up the pieces.
The abortion issue is a complex one, and there are many areas we can agree on and contribute equally to. Helping pregnant women in need doesn’t have to be “anti-choice”; acknowledging and helping women through Post Abortive Stress Syndrome should not to be limited to pro-lifers (nor does pretending it doesn’t exist further the choice cause, and in the case discussed here, women should not be forced into abortion.
As a matter of fact, the site states:
Compassionate Americans on all sides will want to know … about these injustices and risks to women. People on all sides are ready to open the door to healing after decades of:
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Unwanted abortions,
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Coercion or even force from all sides,
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Deceptive or negligent counseling and medical practices,
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Coercive, often systemic negligence,
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Risk to teens, including coercion, sexual molestation, and injury
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Risks to all women, ranging from pregnancy-related discrimination and coercion to health risks and post-abortion trauma and death
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Domestic violence toward pregnant women, which can lead to homicide, the leading killer of pregnant women
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Post-abortion issues, including:
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grief
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trauma
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physical injury, including infertility
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6-7 x higher suicide rates
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3.5x higher risk of death in abortion’s aftermath (3)