Steven Ertelt spotlights an abortion activist named Leela Yellesetty. Writing at The Socialist Worker, Yellesetty talks about her experiences as a volunteer with the Community Abortion Information and Referral (CAIR) Project. They provide grants to help low-income women help pay for abortions. According to Yellesetty, though, there wasn’t always enough money to cover the astronomical cost of having an abortion, which can be thousands of dollars.
So Yellesetty “helped” these women.
IT FELT good to be able to help out some women–to know that along with their own resourcefulness, I was able to play a part in ensuring their ability to take control of their bodies and their future. Much harder were the many women I could not help. I had $850 total to spend for the week and, as I mentioned, over 30 women calling in looking for assistance. This meant I had to make some very difficult calls.
I had to ask women who weren’t as far along if they could delay their procedure another week or two. I counseled one woman to put a $3,000 procedure on her credit card–even though she was unemployed and had no way of making payments–because most of the women I spoke to were not even able to access credit. One woman got a payday loan at a 322 percent annual interest rate. I had to ask women if they had any valuables they could sell to the pawnshop, or if it was possible to put off paying some bills for the month.
I never asked a woman to tell someone in her life if she didn’t feel they would be supportive, but I had to ask a lot of them to swallow their pride and ask for help from friends and family.
So her version of “help” for low-income women is to convince them to have a later-term abortion (which is more expensive), to pawn their valuables, take out payday loans with interest rates over 300%, and destroy their financial future.
LifeSiteNews points out whom the CAIR Project is affiliated with:
The CAIR Project is a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), which encourages women to consider “lying to a friend or family member” to get money for an abortion. It asks young women to join “medical testing groups” and cultivate their “relationship” with their landlord. It also suggests they drop out of college.
Considering that, perhaps Yellesetty’s warped version of aid for women makes a little more sense. It doesn’t change how despicable it is, however. Putting $3,000 on a credit card that a woman is unable to make payments on isn’t helpful. It’s making a bad situation worse.
Unwanted pregnancies happen, but there are alternatives to abortion. What are the chances that the women Yellesetty counseled were given those alternatives? Instead, she pushed these women into financial ruin and then congratulated herself for “helping” them. It’s just another shining example of the depravity inherent in the abortion industry and those who claim to be fighting for the rights of women.
