Counseling the "Hurting Moms"

Sidewalk Counseling

Sidewalk Counseling is a phenomenon of the anti abortion movement. The counselors gather outside abortion clinics, relentlessly scanning the area for any women who might be of reproductive age. These women they approach en masse and on a run, shouting "Don't Tear the Arms and Legs off Your Baby!" or "Don't Kill that White Baby, People are paying good money for White Babies" or more cryptically "That's not a Squirrel in There." If the woman tries to object or explain her situation, they have no patience: "You had to open your legs for that man, didn't you?"

What kind of counseling is sidewalk counseling?   An essay by Fred Wallace. Does any other sort of counselor recruit clients by screaming at them on the public sidewalk?

Free Sidewalk Counseling Training Opportunity  April 2, 2003 - This "life saving" opportunity offered by Robert Ferguson, a member of Missionaries to the Unborn and a signer of A Declaration of Support for the Defenders of Unborn Children, a statement praising James Kopp for killing Dr. Barnett Slepian. "Justifiable homicide is a legitimate spiritual practice," says Robert Ferguson.

Sidewalk Counseling   "A mother who is crying does not want the abortion. You must redouble your efforts with her because she is very close to choosing life. Do not let up on her no matter how tired you are."
Maybe she's crying because a hulking 250 pound guy she's never seen before is shouting in her face: "Don't pull the arms and legs off your baby!"

What is Sidewalk Counseling?  "Through Sidewalk Counseling, trained counselors offer last-minute pregnancy assistance to women going into an abortion facility. Counselors offer literature, prayer, flowers and local referals for help."

Sidewalk Counseling Handbook  A large, detailed training manual by ace counselor Karen Black.

Pro-life Counseling Degree Progams for Pregnancy and Post-Abortion Counseling from a Biblical Perspective  Course offerings from Masters Divinity School, who bill themselves as a Graduate School of Divinity: "The student is introduced to the everyday issues associated with pro-life counseling."

Babies Saved This Year  "So far this year, God has saved at least 202 babies (probably 404 or more) from abortion through the hands and feet (and voices) of the local ministries and missionaries participating with Voice For Life." Learn how to distinguish between a "turnaround" and a "turnaway."

We Serve a God Who Answers by Fire!  June 22, 2002 - Was it the Deity's answer to a sidewalk counselor's prayer? Or was it a sleazy and manipulative trick? When a patient's car caught fire in the clinic parking lot, the antis convinced the patient it was God's will.

Harassment is the constant in lives of abortion clinic staff, patients  August 31, 2002 - The California legislature takes steps to protect against anti abortion extremists.

The Lie Behind the New California Hide-the-Abortionist Law: How Lies Told About the Nuremberg Files Are Used To Deceive Gullible People  September 2, 2002 -Neal Horsley thinks it's all about him.

Shame Shouldn't Be the Rx: Taking the politics out of abortion counseling  November 3, 2002 - The exception: a counseling service for women who have had abortions. It "does no religious proselytizing, nor does it promote a political agenda for or against abortion."

Crisis Pregnancy Centers

CPCs exist to convince women not to have abortions. They attract their clientele by referral from sidewalk counselors and by advertising. They often intentionally misrepresent themselves as medical facilities. When permitted to do so, they place yellow pages ads under the same heading as do abortion clinics.

California Pregnancy Center Sues State for Denying License  These antis want their "clinic" licensed as though it were a real medical facility.

The Fetal Position  January 1, 2003 - Federal and state dollars are subsidizing a boom in antiabortion 'crisis pregnancy centers.' "Since taking office, Bush has increased funding for abstinence-only education by 69 percent to $135 million for 2003, nearly $3 million of which will go directly to CPCs."

Harnett Pregnancy Center Makes It Through Its First Year  September 3, 2002 - Opened on September 10, 2001 with the support of local churches.

Outreach ministry offered to women  October 23, 2001 - "Imagine you’re a sixteen-year-old girl just finishing up your sophomore year in high school, and you think you may be pregnant. Where would you turn to get help?" Life Matters Outreach of Cedartown, Georgia, that's where.

Pregnancy Care Center may close its doors  October 30, 2001 - The landlord canceled the lease, the director resigned, the staff quit, they can't find volunteers.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers Look to Congress for Support  December 11, 2001 - "A Colorado Congressman wants his colleagues to go on record as honoring the efforts of 2,500 crisis pregnancy centers around the nation that offer women free pregnancy testing, counseling, clothing, and baby supplies."

Pregnancy Center gets Gift of a Home  December 31, 2001 - The Reach Out Crisis Pregnancy Center got a gift. The landlord gave them the house they had been renting.

Bill would buy ultrasound machines for abortion foes  February 2, 2002 - ". . . anti-abortion activists hope to provide ultrasound equipment to hundreds of pregnancy centers that promote alternatives such as adoption."

Anti-abortion clinic opens near one that provides abortions  July 1, 2002 - It took seven years and nearly a million dollars. Prolife people in Bettendorf, Iowa have opened a crisis pregnancy clinic across the street from Planned Parenthood.

Why Supporting a Crisis Pregnancy Center is Good-- But Not Enough  Operation Rescue West finds that sponsoring a CPC is only your basic wimp level of prolife involvement, and it doesn't let your church off the hook for Bloodguilt, a nasty condition you contract if you don't go with Operation Rescue's maximum plan. After all, these women are not just "Hurting Moms," they're killers: "Are we just to abandon these women to commit their crimes and only come to their aid after the fact?" "Did the Samaritan open an office where beaten and robbed people could make appointments for assistance?"

Maternity Homes

Antiabortion activists hope that Maternity Homes will be the eventual destination for "Hurting Moms" who are counseled at Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

• Burt pleads not guilty in molestation case  July 16, 2003 - "John Burt has a September court date to face charges he molested one of the residents at Our Father's House, the Milton residence he operates for troubled girls."

• Leading anti-abortion activist arrested on molestation charges  June 11, 2003 - He was an associate of assassins Michael Griffin and Paul Hill.

• Preaching life while preying on their fears  June 12, 2003 - As reporter Mary Joe Malone says of John Burt: "He'd been on the run for nearly a week, ever since, as his family put it, he fell on top of one of his girls on the kitchen floor at Our Father's House. Not exactly the way you say your prayers, don't you know."

• Anti-abortion Activist Now Wanted Fugitive  June 9, 2003 - First he was reported missing from his home, now he's a fugitive, wanted for child molestation. John Burt had been operating "Our Father's House," a shelter for unwed mothers. "Investigators say the last girls were removed from the home by the Department of Children and Families Friday night."

• Anti-abortion activists move beside Planned Parenthood: Home will be for unwed mothers  March9, 2003 - In Mansfield, Ohio, the antis spent $102,000 to buy the house next to Planned Parenthood. It is to be the Mary Weslin Home for Pregnant Unwed Mothers. Extremist Fr. Norman Weslin is involved in the project.

• Christian Homes  Based in Abilene, Texas, "Providing maternity, adoption and foster care services since 1962." As of October 30, 2002, their page Children Available for Adoption is blank. "Many of the girls learn to crochet during their stay at the maternity home - making gifts, such as blankets, for their babies." Take the Virtual Tour.

• A new home, a new choice  October 24, 2001 - Mercy Maternity Home was founded in April of 2001 in Boone County, Kentucky. "So far, three women have gone through the program, women who Ms. Reed said were 'abortion vulnerable.'"

• Woman turns dream, $100 into teen girls' safety net  October 29, 2001 - "Home helps those troubled, pregnant."

• Maternity facility at expansion milestone  June 1, 2002 - In Manatee County, Florida they're breaking ground for a second maternity home. "The new Solve House will accommodate 10 pregnant women. It will cost $325,000."

Legal Actions Against Crisis Pregnancy Centers

• Woman sues Pregnancy Help Center  May 4, 2002 - A Milwaukee woman reports that she went to a crisis pregnancy center for help, but they called her a sinner and slapped her around. This is the first such lawsuit that either prochoice or prolife people have heard of.

• Prolifers Cry Foul in NY Attorney General's Probe  January 8, 2002 - Apparently Attorney General Spitzer wants to determine if the CPCs have misrepresented the services they provide.

• The abortion empire strikes back  January 11, 2002 - Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin calls Attorney General Spitzer's inquiry "a direct assault on the front lines of compassionate conservatism." "These centers provide free pregnancy tests and discuss all options, including adoption, abortion and parenthood."

• ACLJ Defends NYC Pro-Life Center Targeted by NY Attorney General  January 15, 2002 - ACLJ is sure that “this is clearly a case of discrimination and harassment.”

• New York state probes pro-life centers: Case ultimately could lead to shutdown of crisis pregnancy movement  Supporters of CPCs fear that requiring medically competent volunteers would doom the centers.

• Pregnancy Resource Centers In N. Y. Victorious As Attorney General Withdraws Subpoenas  February 27, 2002 - The CPCs believe they have compelled the Attorney General to back down.

Critics of Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Choose lies  April 17, 2003 - Deb Berry of Orlando, Florida tells of her run in with a Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Clinic Crisis  July 29, 2002 - "Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are anti-choice 'clinics' that promise free pregnancy tests and counseling, but deliver wildly inaccurate information about the emotional and physical risks of abortion to the women who visit them."

Anti-Abortion Counseling Centers: A Consumer's Alert to Deception, Harassment, and Medical Malpractice  Planned Parenthood gives a set of guidelines for identifying bogus pregnancy counseling operations:

"They falsely suggest or promise a full range of reproductive health services."
"They offer free pregnancy tests but give ambiguous answers about the results."
"They refuse or fail to provide contraceptive information."

California pregnancy centers targeted  February 27, 2002 - Right wing website reports that CARAL (California Abortion Rights Action League) is training activists to gather information by visiting CPCs in the role of clients.

Abortion Battle: Prenatal Care or Pressure Tactics?  February 21, 2002 - "'Crisis Pregnancy Centers' Expand and Draw Criticism."

The deceptive practices of crisis pregnancy centers  Freedom Writer passes on some insights on the antis' manipulative practices. "Pregnancy tests: Never allow a client to watch while you are doing a test." "Client must stay at the clinic for the results of the test." "Do recommend a second test if the client tends to still favor an abortion." "Never counsel for contraception or refer to agencies making contraceptives available. Fornication is still a sin no matter what the circumstances."

Foes see ultrasound as tool to discourage procedures  February 2, 2002 - "Convinced that a look inside the womb will dissuade many pregnant women from abortion, antiabortion activists hope to provide ultrasound equipment to hundreds of pregnancy centers that promote alternatives such as adoption."

Two video exposés of Crisis Pregnancy Centers  Documentary film maker Sunny Chapman describes In Bad Faith and Misguidance, two videos she has made about the deceptive practices of Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

Sidewalk "Science": Self-serving Pseudoscholarly Quackery

Having already supplanted the theory of evolution with Creation Science, the reactionaries publish their medical theories by shouting them on the public sidewalk and posting them on the Web, where they compare poorly with the more vigorous presentations on UFOs or the theory that the sun revolves around the earth.

Inventing a Link between Abortion and Breast Cancer

• Appeals court upholds ruling for Planned Parenthood Lawsuit found to be properly dismissed  January 30, 2002. Appeals court backs up lower court decision that PP had no duty to warn of supposed link between abortion and cancer.

• "Abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk."  April 7, 2003 - From the Abortion, Miscarriage, and Breast Cancer Risk Fact Sheet of the National Cancer Institute website. "The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk."

• Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer Says NCI Guilty of Scientific Misconduct  February 28, 2003 - "The NCI and other cancer groups are only postponing the day when they will have to answer for their misconduct."

• No breast cancer-abortion link  February 26, 2003 - In a report commissioned by the National Cancer Institute, a panel of scientists concludes that "scientific evidence does not support the notion that having an abortion increases a woman's risk of breast cancer later in life."

• Abortion connection to cancer discounted  February 28, 2003 - "Having an abortion does not appear to increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer, according to a report to be presented Monday. The findings could help end a longstanding debate."

• Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer  "27 out of 35 worldwide studies show a link between abortion and breast cancer."

• Abortion-breast cancer link mustn't be ignored  October 26, 2002 - Guest opinion piece by an author convinced of the validity of a link between abortion and breast cancer.

• Abortion/Breast Cancer Link At Issue with Nat'l Fundraiser  September 20, 2002 - Extremist "news" service Agape Press faults the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation because the foundation won't sign on to support the theory that abortion causes breast cancer.

• 'It's time to stop blaming women'  August 17, 2002 - Indiana women who have suffered breast cancer are outraged at their Congressman, Rep. John Hostettler. When they approached him to support research and treatment programs he only wanted to talk about how abortion supposedly causes breast cancer.

• Breast cancer survivors called 'petulant activists'  August 23, 2002 - Women constituents of Congressman Hostettler criticised how he treated them when they called on him to support research on breast cancer. The Congressman had insisted only on speaking about the theory that abortion causes breast cancer. Now the foundation that is the source for the Congressman's nutty ideas, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, calls the women "petulant activists" who "should be deeply ashamed of themselves."

• Congressman's letter upsets 11 women he met with  September 12, 2002 - In his newsletter, Congressman Hostettler claims that the 11 breast cancer survivors "concocted" their complaint about his behavior.

• Hostettler escalates war with breast cancer survivors  September 16, 2002 - "Eleven breast-cancer survivors said they're dismayed because they claim a congressman is calling them a liar."

• Group Challenges ABC Over Abortion-Breast Cancer Link  August 15, 2002 - The Coalition on Abortion and Breast Cancer claims to have scientific proof that ABC has ignored.

• Anti-abortion group must pay legal fees  June 20, 2002 - The Thomas More Law Center must pay $77,835 to Planned Parenthood.

• Lawsuit linking breast cancer to abortions is dismissed  March 20, 2002 - Antiabortion activists had demanded that Planned Parenthood inform its clients of a link between abortion and breast cancer. The judge ruled that this would have interfered with PP's first amendment rights.

• Abortion-Breast Cancer Quarterly Update   Keep up to date on a claim that is several years old and does not yet have reputable medical or scientific support. And have your VISA or MasterCard handy: it's $45 per year, or $80 per 2 year subscription.

• National Cancer Institute Shamelessly Carries on Cover-Up  A press release of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, which styles itself "an international women’s organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer."

• Abortion, Baal Worship and Breast Cancer  These experts assure us that "There is an 800% increase in breast cancer for women less than 18 years old who have an abortion after the eighth week of pregnancy."

• Abortion and Breast Cancer  Cited as a reality check, this document from the National Institutes of Health says "The relationship between abortion and breast cancer has been the subject of extensive research. However, evidence of a direct relationship between breast cancer and either induced or spontaneous abortion is inconsistent. Some studies have indicated small elevations in risk, while others have not shown any risk associated with either induced or spontaneous abortions."

• Should Docs Warn About an Abortion/Breast Cancer Link?  "Consensus: Link Unproven, Warning Not Needed". WebMD sketches contending opinions on any causal link between abortion and breast cancer.

• Scaremongering over breast cancer  December 22, 2001 - Studies cited by antiabortion partisans only show an association -- they do not prove a causal link between abortion and breast cancer.

Post Abortion Stress Syndrome

Post Abortion Stress Syndrome Support   "Post Abortion Stress Syndrome (PASS) is the name for a condition that can affect women after an abortion. It can occur anywhere from minutes, to days, to even years after the procedure." They advise PASS suffers in detail on what TV shows, books, and movies they should avoid. They offer chat settings for women who "were forced or coerced into having an abortion." They also promote a scheme for suing abortion clinics for not warning patients about the supposed connection between abortion and breast cancer.

Note: This site is not the same as the competing afterabortion.org.

Are You the One in Six?  "If you answer yes to three or more of the following questions, you may be suffering from a condition known as post-abortion stress syndrome. Post abortion counseling may help you sort out the hidden emotions you are experiencing. There are skilled and understanding people, many of whom have been through the same things you are going through now, who want to help you and most services are free."

Sick Tactics: The Anti-Abortion Movement Campaigns on its Latest Ploy  January 10, 2001 - PAS, "post abortion syndrome," is a fiction of the antiabortion movement, without support by reputable scientific study. "Publicity around the so-called syndrome is the latest weapon conjured by the anti-abortion movement to chip away at reproductive rights."

Abortion Under Attack  August/September 2001, Ms Magazine - PAS is "a bogus affliction invented by the religious right." As for the stress involved in abortion: "After all, the picketers who scream 'murderer' at women entering clinics are significant stress-inducers, too."

Abortion supposedly linked to subsequent premature births and to depression

March of Dimes Coverup of Abortion / Preemie Link is the Real Mystery  The Elliot Institute/AfterAbortion.org style themselves as "the web's most complete source of information on the aftereffects of abortion and post-abortion healing." The Institute claims that the March of Dimes won't admit that abortion is the cause of an increasing rate of premature births.

Study Links Depression with Abortion  May 6, 2003 - "Women with a history of abortion are at significantly higher risk of experiencing clinical depression compared to women who give birth . . . ."

New studies help 'explode myth' about consequences of abortion  June 6, 2003 - The Southern Baptist Convention finds much to praise about the Eliot Institute's study on post-abortion depression.

Psychiatric admissions of low-income women following abortion and childbirth  May 13, 2003 - Article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal claiming to establish a link between abortion and subsequent depression. Its principal author is David C. Reardon of the Eliot Institute.

Psychological implications of abortion — highly charged and rife with misleading research  May 13, 2003 - A refutation of Reardon's article. "The most plausible explanation for the association observed by Reardon and colleagues is that it is spurious: it reflects unmeasured differences that existed before the target pregnancy between the women in the delivery and the abortion samples."