In honor of congressional candidate Mike Erickson, I thought I’d recycle this oldie-but-goodie–always worth a read!
When the Anti-Choice Choose
By Joyce Arthur
My three favorites:
“I’ve had several cases over the years in which the anti-abortion patient had rationalized in one way or another that her case was the only exception, but the one that really made an impression was the college senior who was the president of her campus Right-to-Life organization, meaning that she had worked very hard in that organization for several years. As I was completing her procedure, I asked what she planned to do about her high office in the RTL organization. Her response was a wide-eyed, ‘You’re not going to tell them, are you!?’ When assured that I was not, she breathed a sigh of relief, explaining how important that position was to her and how she wouldn’t want this to interfere with it.” (Physician, Texas)
“In 1990, in the Boston area, Operation Rescue and other groups were regularly blockading the clinics, and many of us went every Saturday morning for months to help women and staff get in. As a result, we knew many of the ‘antis’ by face. One morning, a woman who had been a regular ‘sidewalk counselor’ went into the clinic with a young woman who looked like she was 16-17, and obviously her daughter. When the mother came out about an hour later, I had to go up and ask her if her daughter’s situation had caused her to change her mind. ‘I don’t expect you to understand my daughter’s situation!’ she angrily replied. The following Saturday, she was back, pleading with women entering the clinic not to ‘murder their babies.’” (Clinic escort, Massachusetts)
“My first encounter with this phenomenon came when I was doing a 2-week follow-up at a family planning clinic. The woman’s anti-choice values spoke indirectly through her expression and body language. She told me that she had been offended by the other women in the abortion clinic waiting room because they were using abortion as a form of birth control, but her condom had broken so she had no choice! I had real difficulty not pointing out that she did have a choice, and she had made it! Just like the other women in the waiting room.” (Physician, Ontario)
You can read the entire article here.
Best article ever. Had it bookmarked for years.
I swear, ask any provider who gets picketed, and they’ll have a story like that. Dr. Susan Wicklund had a similar situation that she wrote about in her book—a woman who tried daily to block the doors to the clinic with her body shows up in the office one day for an abortion. That story has a happy ending, though—the woman realized that she was in the wrong to be anti-choice and became a pro-choice activist.
***SNNIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFF***
I love the smell of hypocrisy on a Monday.
Honestly, if I were that physician in Ontario, I don’t know that I would have been able to restrain myself. In fact, I probably would have said something a hell of a lot ruder.