"Everyone wanted me to get an abortion ... except me"
Jewels' story
LiveAction has posted the
story of Jewels Green, a woman who underwent a coerced abortion at 17
and later spent several years working at an abortion facility in
Pennsylvania. Here’s an excerpt:
My first baby would be 22 this week.
I was a 17-year-old drug-using high school
drop-out, but when the lady wearing scrubs told me I was pregnant, I
already thought of myself as a new mother.
Everyone wanted me to get an abortion…
except me.
I actually stopped using drugs, went to the
library and checked out a book called Under 18 and Pregnant and
started to read it to prepare. I scheduled my first prenatal check-up.
My boyfriend was relentless. I am deliberately omitting the details of
the violence, both real and threatened, but I finally caved in to my
boyfriend’s insistence to not have our baby. On January 4, 1989, he took
me to the abortion clinic, but I literally ran out in the hope
of saving my baby. Two days later, on January 6, 1989, at 9 1/2 weeks
gestation, I had an abortion. It nearly killed me. No, not the surgical
procedure, the psychological aftermath. I attempted suicide three times
after my abortion and finally ended up in an adolescent psychiatric ward
of a community hospital for a month to recover.
I was coerced into having an abortion and
thought that by becoming a counselor at an abortion clinic, I could help
others like me really talk out their feelings on the issue, truly
explore their options, and help them make an honest, informed
decision–or help them leave an abusive situation. … [A]fter two years
working at the clinic and starting college as a psychology major, I was
trained as a counselor. The "counseling" experience was not what I had
hoped. Nearly every pregnant woman coming to an abortion clinic for
‘options counseling’ had already made up her mind, but just wanted to
check out the facility and have her questions answered and perhaps her
fears allayed. And most of the women coming in felt they had no other
choice. A few were truly ambivalent.
This is where the pro-choice movement and
clinics fail. Sure, we had a little notebook with the names and numbers
of two local adoption agencies, but we were never trained or taught how
the adoption process works so we could explain it to women. We had the
phone number of the local WIC office, public assistance, etc., but
again, knew nothing about the process should anyone ever ask for
details. If a pregnant woman wanted to learn more about these other
choices, the best the "options counselor" could offer was a post-it note
with a phone number hastily scribbled on it.”
You can read the rest of Green’s story at
LiveAction’s blog.
Research suggests that her observations about
women coming for abortions believing they “had no other choice” and the lack
of help and options offered is very accurate. A
survey of American and Russian women who had abortions, published in the
Medical Science Monitor, found that:
-
64 percent of American respondents reported
they were pressured by others to abort;
-
More than 50 percent said they were uncertain
or needed more time to make a decision;
-
79 percent said they were not given any
information about abortion alternatives;
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84 percent said they did not receive adequate
counseling before abortion; and
-
67 percent said they received no counseling
before abortion.
As Green points out, the solution is to provide
real support to pregnant girls and women:
We need to do better. We need to
provide real resources to pregnant mothers facing an unplanned
pregnancy. The women and babies of our country deserve better.
~~~
Need Help?
You can find a list of resources and support for
pregnant women and for women,men and families hurting after abortion in our
Help & Healing Guide. The
Center Against Forced Abortion also provides legal resources to women
and girls being coerced or forced to abort.
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