Genetic “counselors” are medical personnel that walk women and their partners though testing (usually amniocentesis) to see if their unborn babies have a genetic illness or disability. If a woman is at risk for having a baby with a disability, or if they already know that they are pregnant with one, these genetic counselors are supposed to be unbiased in helping them decide whether or not to abort. In reality, there are subtle ways that this type of “counselor” can influence a woman’s decision.
From one genetic counselor:
As a counselor, I consider it my job to accompany my patients to everything. The sonographer here at City is a right to lifer. When he knows someone has a positive diagnosis, that they are going to abort, he hands them a photo of the fetus. Imagine being forced to take it, to take that picture, when you know the pregnancy is Down’s, you know you’re going to abort!
Genetic counselor Felicia Arcana
Abortion proponents and providers know the power of ultrasound, and many of them have the desire to shield women from seeing the truth about their unborn babies. Clearly, this activist doesn’t want the woman to be swayed against abortion. One might think that a woman would want (and a medical professional provide) every single bit of information she can get about her own body and her pregnancy that affects her health and future. But abortion proponents encourage women to make these decisions without seeing their babies on an ultrasound and knowing the development of their child.
Even if a woman is reluctant to see an ultrasound of her baby, what happens when years down the line she becomes pregnant again, sees that ultrasound, and realizes that the “product of conception/tissue/collection of cells” that she aborted has a face and hands, and little arms and legs? Isn’t it better to know all the facts when one still has a choice? Because many women discover the truth about how developed their babies were when it is too late for them to take back their abortions. Sadly, I have read many such stories and testimonies.
Not only does this counselor believe that women shouldn’t get all the relevant information before having an abortion, she does not trust women’s ability to make decisions for themselves- including the decision of whether or not to accept and look at picture they are offered.
Source: Rayna Rapp Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: the Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America (New York: Routledge, 1999) 67
