Here's a partial list of women's concerns:
"Where am I going?"
"How will a child affect my other children? My career? My education?"
"Who is with me on this journey? What do they think about me and my life?"
"What are my beliefs about life, death, and doing the right thing?"
"How is my health? Who is depending on me to care for them?"
"How strong is my relationship with my partner, my family, my friends?"
"What can I handle financially, emotionally, physically?"

I, my, my, my, me, me, my, my, me, my, my, my, my, I...

I think this tells it all.
Tony | Homepage | 07.18.06 - 11:51 pm | #

"Legal, safe, and rare" continues to sound more and more disingenuous.

Option number 8 just embodies the state of abortionists these days: come in! Wait in line! Lay down! Pay up! We can do ten an hour! We can open our doors, do almost no work, and make ten grand a day! Don't bring a friend! Don't expect anything to make your experience more relaxing or painless! Come in alone, and leave even lonelier! But thanks for paying! Remember, freedom of choice is why we're here ... cha-ching! Come back soon!

And option number 9 sounds like it could cause more fatalities to the adult women than the "Never Again" people would believe.
RS | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 12:44 am | #

I had no idea that I passed so close to such a locus of evil when driving between home and office. Now I will have to find a special prayer to say when doing so.

Some of the statements in that "fantasy" are just so touchy-feely, and full of new-age saccharine sweetness that is all the more sick when you realize what they are really saying:

Ending a pregnancy is not just a physical act but also a spiritual process.

Jesus, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

I am so absolutely disgusted by this I think I'll throw up. Abortion as a spa day!!!!!!!!

Satan is truly at work in the world -- I just had no ideas his prose was so clumsy and smug.
Cin | 07.19.06 - 12:57 am | #

Yeah, the "Deluxe Spa Treatment" was really bizarre. Massage, jacuzzi, facial, abortion -- one of these things is not like the others.
Susan B. | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 1:11 am | #

Something right out of "Brave New World" and 1984!:(

More evidence that indicates that the gift of "Willing suspension of disbelief" that we can use when reading a book, watching a play or seeing a movie can go haywire.
P. Edward Murray | 07.19.06 - 1:19 am | #

I especially "liked" the comment that
Abortion is my life work...

Excuse me?

Life work?

I'm trying to imagine the utter terror this lady will have when she meets Christ when she dies....

A rather ubrupt, rude awakening!

And these folks live in my own state?

Thank God they are on the western side!
P. Edward Murray | 07.19.06 - 1:36 am | #

Interesting that they consider "full emotional support" a special package. I think it really speaks to the true motives of the abortion industry: "We're not really here to support women, we're here to make money."
Joy | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 7:16 am | #

"Native American (Taino clan tradition), Eastern philosophy, nature-inspired (pagan), or custom designed ceremonies are available to you and to the support people who will accompany you on your spirit quest."

Hard to believe they don't have a Christian package. I'll have to look up the rite at work today. Probably somewhere in the Mass for the Dead.
Andy | 07.19.06 - 8:24 am | #

Joy--

Yeah, I noticed that, too. And if you shell out, you get two hours with a couselor--TWO WHOLE HOURS! Gee willikers! By stating the amount of time like that, they seem to be differentiating it from the other packages in which a couselor is available. That leads me to believe that the other packages which provide emotional support give a woman and her family shorter time periods (hour? half hour?) in which supposedly to air all their concerns. Does that sound effective to anyone?

Another thing: the Spiritual Package is BY FAR the most expensive--$2000 more expensive than the next option down. Which suggests that the authors either don't expect many people to require a spiritual option, or that they don't want many people to have it available. Excuse me, ladies, but I think your subtext is showing.

And as for the anonymous procedure: Um, is it legal to perform a medical procedure and keep no records of it? And isn't it a huge liability? I mean, since (it seems to me) fatalities and/or complications can result from ANY medical procedure, isn't it a huge liability to a clinic offering anonymous abortions? What happens if a woman hemorrhages and has to be rushed to the emergency room? Or if she later dies from complications, and the autopsy reveals an abortion, but no records can be found? Would any clinic--any clinic that actually pays malpractice insurance--actually agree to this anonymity?
Kate B. | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 8:59 am | #

I am stunned. So much evil being prettied up. At first I thought this was a sick parody.
Emkay | 07.19.06 - 10:24 am | #

Taino clan? I thought the Tainos/Arawaks were all wiped out in like 1600 or something (yes, being sarcsatic...but not really).
Pansy Moss | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 11:38 am | #

The spiritual journey options...Likely to be in the new Book of Common Prayer when the Episcopalians to the next update?
Bob | 07.19.06 - 11:55 am | #

From option #6:
"Have the surgical procedure when you are ready for a separation of paths with the spirit child within you. Miscarriage with medicines and herbs is also available early in pregnancy."

So, they concur; it is a child in the womb. But I suppose it is abortable because it's merely a "spirit child". Is that a child without physical form? But doesn't a physical body come out in the abortion proccess? So, then I guess only the "spirit child" remains after the destruction of the corporeal one. Got it.
...and an herbally induced miscarriage...

Pure insanity.
Lord help us.

Leif
Leif | 07.19.06 - 12:23 pm | #

Comment seems superfluous. I seriously thought this was a joke but it appears not to be. Yet another piece of evidence that much of the modern world is beyond the reach of the parodist and satirist.

Ok, well, as long as we're all together here, let's try a joke: My polyamory partners and I feel marginalized by the use of words such as "couple" and "partner" in the singular.

Nah, the Unitarians will be there soon enough.
Maclin Horton | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 1:19 pm | #

I love how the Abortions Anonymous didn't begin with its own paragraph.
With such a subtle sense of humor, I'm not surprised they left out the obvious tenth choice:

10) the happy home: with trees and flowers and chirping birds
And basket weavers who sit and smile
And twiddle their thumbs
Philip | 07.19.06 - 1:46 pm | #

Maclin,
Apologies for any superfluousness.
(the word itself seems a bit...)

In all seriousness, I'm only trying to figure out what the abortion industry actually thinks it is engaging in.
Do they see themselves as merely expelling a blob of tissue from the womb?
...terminating a pregnancy?
...terminating a life?
...engaging in justifiable homicide?
...or seperating Mom from her "spirit child"?

They can't hold still in the debate.

Leif
Leif | 07.19.06 - 2:38 pm | #

at risk of getting deleted:

Dude, WTF?
Fallen Sparrow | Homepage | 07.19.06 - 3:38 pm | #

Leif,

You mean you didn't get the memo?
The one about the whole world being
insane?:)
P. Edward Murray | 07.19.06 - 5:15 pm | #

Ed,
I got the memo about the world being full of sin, and somehow I could take it.
But when I heard the news of legalized abortion...
that's when, like yourself, I had to conclude that the insanity level is much too high in this world.

Peace
Leif | 07.19.06 - 5:39 pm | #

The "Full Emotional Support" option includes the following: "Consultation by phone with the clergy or spiritual leader from your belief system included, if desired."

It would be interesting to know if they have anyone on tap for the "belief system" of Roman Catholicism and, if they do, who it is.
Dan | 07.19.06 - 7:01 pm | #

Well, Dan, the wonderful thing about Catholicism is that it isn't "my belief system" at all - because if it was, I would be utterly screwed. I have no more power to cook up a belief system that can save my own soul than I have of grabbing my own feet and throwing myself like a Frisbee. Catholicism is Someone Else's idea, and thank God for it.

You'll notice that the "spritual journey" option bears this out in spite of itself - they list the various spirit healer/guides available, and nowhere is Christianity on the list. Despite the best efforts of PP (and, sad to say, certain of the clergy), there's only so much you can do to twist the Gospel. It offers a specific kind of help, and attempts to make it do anything else are futile.
Nightfly | Homepage | 07.20.06 - 12:33 pm | #

"In most utopian scenarios, price tags are not offered because we assume money will be replaced by a better system of valuation."

"Of course, in our ideal world, birth control works, sex goes beyond trading fluids to a trading of souls, and society is understanding of the emotional and spiritual issues in the rare situations where pregnancies happen and are not desirable. Of course, we also realize that even in the future, enlightened or not, people will take risks around sex, and love will still be blind. And, abortion will still be needed..."

What these two statements tell me is that the writers have less difficulty envisioning a world where a "better system of valuation" than money exists than a world without abortion. That's creepy in itself, but the gist of the essay seems to be that the stigma of abortion is the reason why the costs are so low which in turn cause the abortion experience to be lousy. There's a lot to unpack here.
Hannah | 07.21.06 - 1:24 am | #

"She recognizes that she is the gatekeeper of life and so creates a special place for herself to consider this question: "Is this the right time for new life to come into the world through my body?" "

There it is folks, from the rest of the essay on the Allegheny Clinic's site: mother as tyrant, deciding which fetus is desirable and which is undesired and thus to be aborted.

Apparently mom has veto power over another's life, even though God has already made the decision that, yes, this is the right time for another life to enter the world.
Leif | 07.21.06 - 12:19 pm | #

...of course if mom is pregnant, then apparently a little child has slipped through the gates, to use their language. And for how long can mom play the role of gatekeeper? If she can tell the child-in-the-womb that he or she has no right to "come into the world", can she tell the newborn child the same thing, to turn away from the gates and return from whence he/she came?
And to extend the "prochoice" logic, if the fetus is not a human being, then who needs to do any gatekeeping, as there are apparently no human children showing up at the gates, only "clumps of cells".
Leif | 07.21.06 - 2:09 pm | #

I think George Tiller has been offering "Christian" ceremonies following abortion for quite some time. Unfortunately, all of this shows that people desparately want to believe that the emotional hurt of abortion won't happen if only they do some nice little rituals.
Anonymous | 07.21.06 - 10:14 pm | #

This list of "packages" is enough to make you vomit.

5G's for a spiritual journey in murder? Forget the wanton distruction of life, that is price gouging if I ever saw it.

You should also check out allegheny's page on minors, where they state that if you want to get around that little "minors must inform their parents" law they have in Pennsylvania, just go up to PP and their lawyers will help you. They state the judge has never said no to anyone who has ever wanted to bypass their parents. Does this not sound like extorion of minors?

I have these "options" and the minors page commented on my blog, but I'm new to this trackbacking business.

http://kennedysmusings.townhall....3f- 481f5b33d51e

In any event, great work Dawn, keep it up.
Brian in MA | Homepage | 07.24.06 - 9:09 pm | #