Thanks Yabby I’m going to go learn some more. Your poor dad. I just lost a little more hope for the children I have known, not that a lot was there to start with.

Runner:”…The emotional response does not justify the behaviour. Calloused hearts justify all kinds of actions.”

Like Sophie’s choice.

I agree KH. I’d like to think it’s a decision made after much consideration and soul searching but without a crystal ball who can predict how they will feel at any time afterwards. If they later grieve then they have my sympathy. It may have been the right choice at the right time for the right reasons but that’s all that rational thinking again that ignores what Yabby has explained.

If the women whose stories appeared in "Giving Sorrow Words" were women who didn't want an abortion and can't cope with the situation, shouldn't our response be to ask why they were having unwanted abortions in the first place? One of the major themes of this book is that most decisions for abortion are made under conditions of reduced freedom -- due to pressure, abuse, coercion, lack of viable options, lack of information and proper counseling, etc.

Rather than blame women for not being able to cope with this, we should be calling out the abortion industry and abortion advocates for opposing common sense measures like making sure women are screened for coercion and pre-existing risk factors for psychological problems. To tell women who were dependent on support they never received that the problem is that they just didn't want the baby enough is incredibly callous.

I’d prefer to screen the people that blame them for psychological problems.

In the 1970's a medical missionary friend working in Africa was raped by several invading soldiers. She chose not to have an abortion because the child was as much hers as the father of the child she will never know whom. She has no regrets of having a healthy daughter.

AmyR, I'm sure the regretful women who told their stories in the book all presented compelling arguments for having a termination at the time. No woman presenting to a legitimate termination clinic can have a termination after just turning up and asking for one without being counselled on what their situation is and making sure that they are certain of their decision and that it IS THEIR decision (without coercion). Doctors can be held accountable for any failure to do this for ANY medical procedure, including abortion.

I agree that women are making their decisions because they lack viable options, have reduced freedom, are under emotional stress, drug or alcohol problems, abuse etc, but the woman has no way of knowing that these conditions will worsen or improve over time and what the outcome will be if she brings a child into this situation. She can only make the best decision for herself and her family under the current circumstances after careful consideration. If her situation improves for the better 10 years later but she is now too old to have children and she is regretful of her earlier termination, it's sad, but that's life. How could anyone have known how things would turn out?

Do you think women and their partners are not to be trusted to make decisions for themselves and need to be coerced into continuing the pregnancy because some right-to-life "counsellor" knows better?

Crumpethead, if you read the book you would find that this is precisely what the author is saying: that woman DO have abortions "without being counselled on what their situation is and making sure that they are certain of their decision and that it IS THEIR decision (without coercion)."

The book includes much more detail than I have space to quote here, but the author quotes from a U.K. government report that found that for many women, abortion is an "irreversible act chosen without sufficient knowledge." (p. 36) There is also this from an article in the "Australian Journal of Sex, Marriage and Family": "Two major criticisms can be directed at the present system. First, abortion counseling is not readily available to all women seeking abortions, and second, it could be argued that some of the counseling that is done in the private sector is more concerned with 'appearances' and evidentiary matters than the genuine well-being of the clients ... counseling should be independent of the abortion service in both the public and the private sectors." (p. 34)

The testimonies of a former abortion clinic nurse and the women in the book -- including women who describe themselves as pro-choice on abortion -- support this conclusion. It isn't that women cannot be trusted, but rather, that women cannot trust abortion clinics to provide them with the information they need and to act in their best interests. This is why the measures I have described are so needed.