Abortion advocates often peddle abortion as a woman’s freely-made ‘choice,’ but some studies have revealed that 64% of post-abortive women felt pressured in some way to abort. Most often, that pressure comes from parents, boyfriends, and even employers — but many women report that when they walked through the doors of Planned Parenthood, they only received additional coercion instead of a helping hand or a listening ear.
‘Soul-crushing’ abortion
One woman named Katie shared that the Planned Parenthood “counselor” didn’t offer her any information or counseling other than the option to abort.
She said, “The counselor did not ask me if I agreed [to an abortion], or if we wanted any other information regarding what kind of support would be available to us if we decided to move forward with the pregnancy, nor did she mention the option of adoption.” Katie said she was also told that “abortion was the responsible choice to make since we were just college students without jobs or the means to provide a stable home for the baby.”
Katie was also lied to about her preborn baby’s fetal development and told that the child was just “undeveloped tissue.” After intense pressure, Katie decided to go through with the abortion, but remembers crying through the entire appointment. She said no one at Planned Parenthood showed any concern for her hesitation or emotions, instead rushing her through without a chance to think.
“Crying from start to finish”
Another woman named Jill said her baby’s father pressured her to abort their preborn child, and she relented, visiting a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. Though she said that the staff members could tell she didn’t want to go through with the abortion, they did nothing to steer her away from it or offer alternatives.
She recounts being the only woman in the facility that day who was “crying from start to finish.”
“I don’t understand how they let me go through with it,” she wrote. “I remember it all. I was hysterical in the exam room, and Planned Parenthood staff was telling me to relax because they didn’t want me to have complications.”
She was left haunted by the abortion, writing, “I have flashbacks to that day, to the Planned Parenthood workers who just stared at me as I cried, not doing a thing. I still, to this day at times, cannot use a vacuum, and have to stop cleaning because I am reminded of the pain and memories I went through.”
Guilt-tripped into abortion
In a book by pro-life author Terry Ianora, pregnancy resource center worker MT Hall shared the story of a woman who visited the center, and shared that her previous pregnancy had ended in abortion. Ianora wrote:
This was her fourth pregnancy but would be her third baby. When she was last pregnant, she had gone to Planned Parenthood. Her husband was unemployed at the time, and the woman there put a huge guilt trip on her.
The woman was very negative regarding when her husband might be employed again. She told her that she had no business putting further burden on her husband, it wasn’t fair to the children she already had, etc.
The worst was that the woman convinced her to have an abortion without consulting her husband!
Abortion presented as the only option
The organization Silent No More shared the testimony of one woman who said she went to Planned Parenthood to learn about her options. However, abortion was all she was offered. She explained:
I was asked why I was there and told them that I was pregnant and not sure what I wanted to do. The woman brought me in an office and proceeded to push papers in front of me to start the abortion process. I asked if they had any information on options.
She motioned to a rack with a few pamphlets in it and treated me like I was wasting her time. Instead she started to ask, ‘Do you want your life to be ruined by a baby? Do you think the father is going to stick around?’
It would be shocking to think that any true medical or health care facility would be allowed to practice with patient stories and outcomes such as these, yet Planned Parenthood regularly touts itself as providing “routine health care” — and it has the financial backing of the federal government, receiving close to $700 million in taxpayer funding each year.
An organization that shows such little regard for the women it “helps” as it pressures woman into its biggest money-maker — abortion — doesn’t deserve another dime of taxpayer money. It’s time to defund Planned Parenthood.
