Two leaders from Silent No More Awareness, a ministry that works with post-abortive women, talked with The Interim about the hand-wringing rhetoric of President Barack Obama and former first lady Hillary Clinton and the tactics of abortionists that seem to recognize the humanity of the unborn child.
Georgette Forney wonders why abortionists and women who see the negative aspects about abortion do not go all the way and conclude that abortion is wrong.e
Georgette Forney, president of Anglicans for Life and a co-founder of Silent No More Awareness, and Angelina Steenstra, president of Second Chance Ministries and national co-ordinator for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign in Canada, were skeptical about the new rhetoric.
Forney argued that even though the new counselling is a sign that some abortionists are finally admitting there are negative effects to abortion, they are still belittling the pain women feel: “Women describe it to us as they’re hurt and their soul is being sucked out during an abortion, but a pink-hearted post-it note on a wall as a means of solving having your soul sucked out during an abortion is absurd. It’s demoralizing and it’s totally inappropriate in terms of responsible healthcare.”
Forney, herself post-abortive, saw the “head and heart” counselling methods of some abortionists as offering “band-aid” solutions. “They’re trying to put a band-aid where there’s a broken limb,” she said. “Instead of bringing in the heavy artillery of the living God, the only one that can help us really address this stuff, they are trying to use New Age spirituality and it amounts to a band-aid where a cast is needed.”
The worst aspect of this new counselling is the disillusionment and despair women will face down the road when they begin to realize that the help they received still will not work. Forney imagined their emotional and mental reaction: “I still feel really bad and they had me write my note and they had me do this and they had me do that, but when I have that dark moment, that quiet moment by myself, I’m still really hurting from this thing. I must be really bad, I must be really hopeless, therefore there’s no help for me. I have to live the rest of my life in this tunnel of pain, because they’ve tried to fix me and I’m not fixable.” This is particularly dangerous, because they may not try to find real help for themselves from groups like Second Chance Ministries, if they think such help is useless.
Angelina Streenstra said women must face the 'full truth' of abortion, not just what abortion workers want them to hear, even if abortionists are talking about the unborn child as a person.
Steenstra used the example of Julia Szumowski, a woman who had an abortion and spent 10 years searching for healing in New Age practices and anti-depressant medications. The problem with these methods is that they fail to acknowledge the full truth of abortion and, as Steenstra relates, “It wasn’t until she (Julia) faced that absolute truth” that abortion was wrong and “that she did not have the right to take the life of her child” that “her life was completely turned around and it’s because it’s truth that sets us free.”
It may seem astounding that a pregnant mother could openly acknowledge the humanity of her unborn child, express love for the child and then proceed to have the child killed. Steenstra, who also had an abortion, gave an insight into the psychology of such an individual. She said it reminds her of “an addict in denial,” who attempts to rationalize and justify his destructive behaviour to a level where it becomes downright bizarre to an objective observer.
This goes for abortionists as well as their patients. Steenstra says of the abortionists who are creating these counselling methods, “There is this deeper, deeper thing going on … it’s like they know what they’re doing, whether they’ve admitted it or not, is wrong, it goes against the law written on their heart and so they try to compassionately wipe it all away beforehand by taking on these tactics.” Ultimately, however, said Forney, because their attempt is inadequate, not to mention dishonest, “it undermines the validity of our experience. They are being very disrespectful to women in this approach.”