1). “Watch State Senator Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg) torch the NC Senate over their funding of fake "crisis pregnancy centers" in this year's state budget!”, Sep 24, 2023, Carolina Forward, at < https://www.tiktok.com/@
2). “Informed consent 'not happening', when abortion offered following prenatal diagnosis”, May 09, 2023, Petra, Pregnancy Help News, at < https://pregnancyhelpnews.com/
3). “Maternity homes provide support in a post-Roe world, but not without conditions”, May 9, 2023 5:50 AM ET, Katia Riddle, “Heard on All Things Considered”, NPR, at < https://www.npr.org/2023/05/
4). The Rise of Pregnancy Criminalization, Sept 2023, Purvaja S. Kavattur, Somjen Frazer et. al., 67 pages, Pregnancy Justice, at < https://www.
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: Newest Beginning posted the latest installment of Abortion, Every Day, before I was ready to. But I had looked up some of the links that Jessica Valenti provided and posted three of them here. Item 1)., “Watch State Senator Natasha Marcus ….”, is a fine 4 ½ minute video of a Democratic member of the North Carolina State Legislature pointing out the outrageous and corrupt uses of 12.6 million dollars of North Carolina tax monies to phony and fraudulent “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”. Apparently all the money given to the 7 religious fanantics and fraudster Crisis Pregnancy Sites her group investigated was stolen. An important issue regarding the now about 20 statewide forced-birth policies, enforced by harsh draconian and invasive theocratic / fascistic police and prosecutors, is that in addition to being dangerous and generally very painful fate of the women involved: WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THE MEDICAL EXPENSES, that mount up astronomically for dangerous pregnancies with doomed prognoses. The dysfunctional U.S. for-profit so-called Heath-Care system already cannot take care of millions of people. The last thing it needs are thousands of very expensive doomed pregnancy that could have been avoided once the bereaved parents realized that their wanted and greatly to-be-cherished baby was doomed. Very pointedly in article 2)., “Informed consent 'not happening', ….”, that is an article about a presentation, given by reactionary forced-birth operative Gary Thome at Heartbeat International's 52nd Annual Conference. Thome who has absolutely no scientific qualifications; but who tellingly is one of Heartbeat International’s board members, pontificates about all the wonderful emotional experiences of a doomed pregnancy, but never even deigns to mention the frequent physical suffering by the pregnant woman or the outlandish expenses that inevitably build up in such a horrific experience.
Jessica, in an earlier iteration of Abortion, Every Day, mentioned Heartbeat International. I followed up looking at the article in Item 3). “Maternity homes provide support ….” that discusses some of the young pregnant women and the older forced-birth advocate and religious-right figure, Robin Watters, who runs the maternity home. The home provides a place to live during the pregnancy and for a short period thereafter, but is specifically not qualified to help young women with the standard drug problems and other health problems stemming from homelessness and other social pathologies, that are more common in the Forced-Birth Red States like Idaho where the maternity home is located. And finally they provide nothing once the young woman, with a young baby in tow is sent out into the world at large.
“I wanted to flag one nightmare in particular: the group wants to establish “a network of maternity homes across the nation” run by Heartbeat International—the country’s largest network of anti-abortion centers.
“This truly terrifies me. We’ve already seen an exponential increase in funding for religiously-affiliated anti-abortion centers that lie to women, scare and shame them. Now these same groups want to have women live with all of that horror. Lots of women in this country remember what it was like when vulnerable pregnant women were shuttled to homes—we don’t want to see that again. (And if you want a sense of what modern maternity homes are like, this NPR piece about a center in Idaho where women have curfews and need to hand over their phones should give you an inkling.) {Emphasis added}
“As always, they are telling us exactly what they plan to do. The only question is: Will we pay attention?” (See, “Conservatives want to open a national network of maternity homes”, June 1, 2023, Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day, at < https://jessica.substack.com/
Finally there is this disturbing report in Item 4)., “The Rise of Pregnancy Criminalization ….” that reviews in some detail the sordid and vicious project by reactionary legislators, prosecutors, and police to further punish poor women who are pregnant and ensnared in our social pathologies. Disturbing reading to say the least.
Informed consent 'not happening' when abortion offered following prenatal diagnosis
- font size
- 09 May, 2023
- Written by Petra
- Published in COMMENTARY
Heartbeat International's 52nd Annual Conference was packed with a wide range of presentations and workshops. If you were able to attend, I am so glad; if you weren’t, today I am going to give you a bit of insight into a particular workshop.
Gary Thome, one of Heartbeat’s board members, gave a presentation on the topic of prenatal diagnosis. A prenatal diagnosis is just about what it sounds like — the baby has been diagnosed with some sort of condition, disorder, or anomaly before he or she has been born.
While this reason for abortion contributes to a small percent of overall abortions, Thome estimated that about 25,000 – 30,000 children each year are at risk of abortion based on a prenatal diagnosis. And of those children, he estimated that about 2,500 of them have conditions for which abortion is strongly recommended.
This is thousands of children a year for whom abortion is sold to the mother and/or father as a solution by their trusted doctor.
These are parents who typically want their children and are making plans to bring them into the family when they get their screening or diagnostic result.
Doctors are engaging in discrimination against people with special needs by encouraging abortion in these circumstances.
How did we get here? And how can we serve these families, whose stories are often very different than the typical abortion-minded woman who contacts or visits a pregnancy help organization?
Thome explained that the choice of abortion following a prenatal diagnosis often does not involve informed consent.
In this manner, the mothers and families in this situation are similar to other women being sold abortion.
The American Medical Association (AMA) makes a strong statement about informed consent:
“Informed consent to medical treatment is fundamental in both ethics and law.”
Thome based the talk about informed consent on the definition the AMA gives, focusing on the first 2 of the 3 parts of the definition:
“(a) Assess the patient’s ability to understand relevant medical information and the implications of treatment alternatives and to make an independent, voluntary decision.
(b) Present relevant information accurately and sensitively, in keeping with the patient’s preferences for receiving medical information. The physician should include information about:
(i)the diagnosis (when known);
(ii)the nature and purpose of recommended interventions;
(iii) the burdens, risks, and expected benefits of all options, including forgoing treatment.”
What he covered next was an eye-opening look at how informed consent is not happening when abortion is offered following a prenatal diagnosis.
Parents describe receiving a prenatal diagnosis in horrifying terms: “like a train wreck,” “the worst day of my life.”
They respond in a way that indicates they were traumatized by receiving that news.
They lose connection to the baby, they feel like they have no control — like everything is happening to them and they have no agency — and they often engage in the fight, flight, or freeze response.
Trauma also means a loss of executive function in the brain, meaning people undergoing trauma physically cannot think logically, form memories correctly, or do any future-planning.
It is hard to make a smart, logical decision within a trauma mindset. Parents need time and resources before making a decision, like a mental health counseling session. Medical providers who engage in relaying a prenatal diagnosis to parents need to be better trained in how to deliver the news in a way that can minimize the trauma the parents may feel.
Instead, what generally happens is a horrible mixture of the worst possible actions:
● Abortion is often offered immediately after the news of diagnosis (which was not given in a trauma-informed manner). Additionally, parents are often encouraged to follow through on the abortion quickly — perhaps within 72 hours of receiving the news!
● Patients are often not told about the high rate of false positives of screening tests, such as NIPS or NIPTS.
● Doctors often use lethal language, which impacts how the parents process information.
● Parents are often given just plainly wrong information, whether it’s outdated information or perhaps just a misunderstanding of the most up to date information.
● Parents are not told children often fare better than first described. A prognosis is not necessarily possible from a prenatal diagnosis; birth is required for an accurate prognosis to be given.
● Especially terrible: parents are not informed that a positive test may be used as a reason to refuse care to their baby after birth.
● Parents may receive no information from the medical community prior to the offer or recommendation for abortion.
So, mothers and fathers are not being given time to look into resources, to examine their own thoughts and feelings, to discuss things with each other or other family members, or to get any counseling.
Abortion carries a higher risk of both physical and emotional complications for mothers, as well. Because a prenatal diagnosis is often delivered in the second trimester, abortion becomes a physically riskier procedure.
Additionally, parents, both mothers and fathers, often experience more complicated grief after abortion rather than a prenatal diagnosis; carrying to term actually often improves their psychological outcome.
Why are doctors offering abortion, then?
It is often not a medical recommendation, but an ethical one!
There is typically no medical reason for mom to have the abortion; mom is very rarely at any higher risk in her pregnancy due to her baby having a prenatal diagnosis.
Doctors give this recommendation based on a misplaced sense of compassion — doctors truly believe it is emotionally easier on the mother and perhaps more compassionate for the baby if death is induced before birth.
They also offer abortion because they are uncomfortable with uncertainty. Termination is certain. A baby living with a disability is an uncertainty — how much care will they need? For how long? How severe is the prognosis after birth?
The healthcare field needs to vastly improve in the area of prenatal diagnosis.
Women deserve to have time to make a decision. They deserve accurate, current information on the condition their child has and the treatments available. They also deserve to be given support resources.
Healthcare professionals need to be more unbiased in their options counseling and should seek training in trauma and how to deliver news in way that can reduce the traumatic impact on parents.
But amidst all the doom and gloom and the changes that need to be made, there is good news.
These parents are very likely to choose life when they are aware of resources that may be available for them and of the other options they have.
We have an opportunity to help these parents become informed and really, to help them make the decision they have wanted to make all along: to love and care for their baby and to welcome them into their family.
Additionally, there are resources for those who have received a prenatal diagnosis. Something is being done to try to offer women in these particular situations alternative perspective and compassionate, empathetic care.
One resource women who have received a prenatal diagnosis, pregnancy help organizations, sidewalk counselors, and anyone else who may interact with a woman who has received a prenatal diagnosis is PrenatalDiagnosis.org.
This site is a collaboration between Heartbeat International, Be Not Afraid, String of Pearls, HER Plan, and Charlotte Lozier Institute.
It is written to and for parents who have received a prenatal diagnosis, and contains information, resources, and support. Soon, there will be a way for mothers to connect with a Parent Care Coordinator who can walk with them through their pregnancy journey.
If you are interested in becoming a Parent Care Coordinator or even being more prepared as a first line responder for women who have received a prenatal diagnosis, you can visit the Be Not Afraid website, which offers training for both of these levels of care.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat Conference recordings can be purchased HERE.
Maternity homes provide support in a post-Roe world, but not without conditions
Autumn Hendry moved into the Nesting Place maternity home after she became pregnant, but she wasn't allowed to stay after she began using meth and alcohol again.
Faith still marvels at the turn her life took in just a few months. "I'm 25 and I have a curfew," she says. "This is so gross. I hate it."
NPR is not using Faith's last name for this story. She says her ex-boyfriend emotionally and verbally abused her, and she doesn't want him to know where she is. On this day, she reclines on a couch in the living room of the recently renovated house where she now lives. It's a maternity home. Faith is 20 weeks pregnant.
Called the Nesting Place, it's part of a Christian organization in Nampa, Idaho, that tries to dissuade people from abortion and persuade them to take up parenthood. Women can live in the home for free while they carry pregnancies. After their babies are born, they can stay for six months longer.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the pugilistic state and federal legal battles that have followed have garnered all the attention. But another quieter story has played out for women in life-changing ways as the number of abortions has declined markedly.
One group of researchers forecasts 60,000 fewer abortions in the year since abortion became largely illegal in much of the United States. These declines are in the states where pregnant women already faced the greatest risks of maternal mortality and poverty.
Abortion funds navigate a new legal reality post-Roe
For the women navigating these dangers, allies are hard to come by. Maternity homes are a rare source of support. They're free — but not without conditions.
Faith struggled to accept the rules: phones turned in at night, home by 11 p.m., visitors only in common spaces, clean drug tests, compliance with the program and contributions to the household. Permission to leave overnight — even for just one night — must be earned through good behavior.
"Those words were scary to me," says Faith. She'd lived on her own for five years before coming here. But she couldn't deny that it was the best option given her circumstances: single, pregnant, little family support, unemployed and homeless.
She believed turning down the offer of a place to live would be a mistake. "I just knew immediately," she says. "I was like, 'I'd be so stupid.'"
Pregnancy comes with many costs
Faith grew up in Idaho in a family of hunters and sportsmen. But she's a born singer. Her voice is her gift. "I am very, like — soulful rock," she says. "Gospel worship is, like, a part of me." Raised Mormon, she left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a teenager and discovered rock 'n' roll and singers like Adele. "I'm a powerhouse, like belter, type of singer."
She knew she had talent, and neither Idaho nor Colorado, where she moved after high school to live with her sister, was the place to foster it. At 21, Faith packed her car for Los Angeles. She worked there in hospitality at some of the city's most breathtaking high-end hotels. She was the woman behind the front desk. "I was good at it," she says. "I loved it."
But last year, she met a man, also an aspiring musician, and threw herself into the relationship. Not long after, she says, she was feeling depressed, unsure where her music career was heading.
With him, her life unraveled. She lost her apartment. They were soon homeless, bouncing from her car to motels. "We would book the studio for music time and also sleep there," she explains. Her boyfriend told her he was a chef, but she became suspicious. He didn't work much.
Changes to abortion laws mean OB-GYNs have less opportunities to learn procedure
Faith realized how toxic the relationship was at just about the time she learned she was pregnant. The thought of entanglement with this man forever terrified her. "My first thought was abortion," she says.
But something held her back. She'd had an abortion a few years earlier. She still grieved that pregnancy. She felt certain it would have been a girl. She couldn't stop thinking about the child she might have had.
"I don't live life with regrets," Faith says. "I take on my choices. This is the one thing that I can't not regret. It's really heavy on my heart a lot of the time."
She called her mom back in Idaho. She recalls her mother saying that "you can do this" and that "we'll figure it out. I think that you'll be a wonderful mom."
"I didn't know that that's what I needed to hear until she told me that."
Faith got rid of half her possessions and flew home. She still remembers the relief she felt that day as she watched LA recede in the distance, out the airplane window.
But shortly after she got to Idaho, things began to fall apart there, as well. Her stepfather kicked her out of the house. She had already let keeping the pregnancy take root in her mind. It would be a girl, she thought. The thought of not having a place to bring her baby home to terrified her.
That's when she walked into Robin Watters' crisis pregnancy center.
Maternity homes are a solution the Christian right can support
Back in 2018, Watters read an article in a Christian publication. It posed a question: "What would your state do if Roe v. Wade was overturned?" At the time, that seemed like an outlandish possibility. But it got her thinking. "Wouldn't a maternity home," she says, "be the perfect answer?"
There are more than 400 maternity homes across the U.S., according to the Maternity Housing Coalition, an umbrella advisory group. Many are associated with crisis pregnancy centers and — like the Nesting Place — a Christian ministry.
Watters was already running a crisis pregnancy center called Lifeline Pregnancy Care Center when she began dreaming about building a maternity home. She'd seen hundreds of pregnant young women who needed a place to live and, she thought, would benefit from a relationship with the church. She pitched the idea to her board of directors. They went for it, and contractors were finishing renovations on the home that the center had purchased when the Supreme Court issued the decision that overturned Roe. The Nesting Place opened in February.
Robin Watters was inspired to open the Nesting Place maternity home in order to give pregnant woman a place to live if they chose to not have an abortion.
Nampa, a bedroom suburb of Boise, is not a rich community, but Watters says support for this project is broad and deep. To renovate and staff the house, the organization doubled its budget to a half-million dollars annually. It's now working to build an endowment to finance the operation indefinitely without depending on year-to-year donations.
Nearby churches are a primary means of financial support. On a recent day, Keith Wagner, an evangelical pastor, stopped by. It was the first time he'd seen the house since its completion. He seemed awed. "Robin," he said, "This is amazing!"
Sitting in the living room minutes later, Wagner said last summer's Supreme Court decision ending the national right to abortion took the Christian right by surprise.
"Their position has way too often been only defined by what they're against — 'I'm against abortion.'" But Wagner says after the court victory, things changed. "They had to say, 'Oh, hold on a second. OK. We've prayed for this. Now what are we going to do?'"
This year, thousands of low-income women and those living in poverty will have babies in Idaho. And more than 7,000 women a year in Idaho are reliant on Medicaid to cover births. The state now has some of the more austere abortion laws in the country. It's the only state where people can be prosecuted and go to prison for helping a minor leave the state to get an abortion.
Wagner says he encourages people in his congregation of 4,000 to consider adoption or foster-parenting. But that level of sacrifice isn't something many are ready to make. Supporting an organization like the Nesting Place gives people a way to put money behind words.
Even in best-case scenarios, this kind of organization cannot give women all the resources they need for 18 or more years of parenting. "They chose life," Wagner said, "but it's expensive." That's why he supports the organization's stated commitment to helping women build financial skills and learn a trade.
Even then, people will fall through cracks.
Maternity homes don't work for everyone
Things have not worked out for at least one person who came to the Nesting Place. Autumn Hendry, who's 29, found the organization when she was nine weeks pregnant. She says her circumstances felt insurmountable: homeless and struggling with substance abuse. Abortion seemed her best option.
But when Hendry met with the staff members at the crisis pregnancy center, they laid out another path: move into the Nesting Place, get clean, have the baby. "They made me feel really comfortable," she said. "I was able to quit using."
She stopped using methamphetamines and alcohol for a few weeks and earned an overnight pass for good behavior. While she was away from the maternity home visiting a friend, she relapsed.
Watters and Nesting Place staff worked to find Hendry in-patient treatment. She enrolled but then left. Now, she's 26 weeks pregnant, unable to stop using and has no place to live.
She regrets not having the abortion. "I don't want to be pregnant anymore," she says. "But it's too late now."
Out-of-staters are flocking to places where abortions are easier to get
Placing her baby for adoption seems like an obvious path for Hendry. But she has already been down that road. She describes the day several years ago when authorities took her 5-year-old son, Jacob, from school. Child abuse, they said.
"The loss was so bad," she says. Talking about it is wrenching for her. After Jacob's removal, Hendry says, she "dove hard into drugs."
She fought to get Jacob back, but after a few years she could see his life was improving in foster care. She made the excruciating decision to sign over her rights. "I decided it was probably best for him."
When she thinks about adoption and this pregnancy, she relives that trauma.
She's couch-surfing now. On a recent day, she was sitting outside a friend's house not sure whether he'd open the door for her.
The Maternity Housing Coalition acknowledges that substance abuse is a growing issue for maternity homes like the Nesting Place. But these homes are not typically based on a medical model of recovery or equipped to provide in-patient treatment.
Florida's abortion laws protect a pregnant person's life, but not for mental health
"I knew drugs would be in the mix," says Watters, the executive director. "I just didn't know where or how much." The twin issues of homelessness and substance abuse surprised her. She had imagined clients differently.
"I thought it was just like, 'Oh, someone's pregnant, but they have, you know, their parents aren't wanting them to be,'" says Watters. "Or they have no friends, or they need a job." She feels bad for Hendry, but she can't let her come back while she's using drugs. The rules are in place for everyone's safety. "These are choices she's making," she says.
Research shows that women with substance use disorders are at greater risk for unplanned pregnancies. And nearly 20% of people who seek abortions are homeless, according to one study.
Still, Watters sees Hendry's case as a kind of victory. She persuaded this young woman not to have an abortion. "The outcomes in this ministry are so hard to see," Watters says. "It can be years later."
Faith forges a new path
Faith stands in the kitchen of the Nesting Place, sorting a pile of paperwork. "This is what I'm working on now." She gestures to a paper calendar. The days are filled with activities offered by Christian support groups — one for single moms and another that includes instruction on using Christianity to change behaviors. Recently, she says she has found her way to a new faith.
She's hopeful that six months after she has the baby, she'll be eligible for free or reduced housing through a program that helps participants build financial skills. She plans to start massage therapy school in a few weeks.
The staff members at the house breeze in and out. This place is staffed 24 hours a day. There are only two pregnant women living here now, but the staff hopes to expand to four soon.
Fear of pregnancy: One teen's story in post-Roe America
Another potential resident, 18-year-old Auna, comes by for an interview and to look around.
She is 25 weeks pregnant. There is no turning back now. "This is happening," she says, telling the staff that she'll think about moving in.
Auna asks to be identified only by her first name because she hasn't told her school or employer yet. She doesn't want people to know about her situation or that she considered getting an abortion and even made calls about getting an appointment in the neighboring state of Oregon.
Ultimately, she decided against it. "My mom's always raised me to believe that abortion's not OK. I didn't realize how much it stuck with me until I got pregnant." She's finding out the gender soon, she says with an excited smile. Auna is still in high school.
Faith is also feeling excited, among other emotions. She's grappling with what it will mean to be a single mom; she's lonely at times, carrying a pregnancy without a partner.
She's also mad. She's not planning to ask her ex-boyfriend for help, afraid of what he might do. It's unfair, she says, how little this situation demands of the father of her child. As far as she knows, he's still in Los Angeles. "He gets to be there and continue his music journey and do what he's doing."
She's only 25, Faith reminds herself. She imagines someday — maybe four or five years from now — driving back to Los Angeles to resume her dream of singing professionally, this time with her daughter in tow.
"I'm just pressing pause right now."
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The following link is to a 67 oage PDF that I could not copy here.
https://www.pregnancyjusticeus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/9-2023-Criminalization-report.pdf
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