Bugger, I have indirectly supported a 'Christian abortion counselling service'

[ChinnyReckon]

I feel conflicted and uneasy. Backstory; like other people, things are a bit tight for us at the moment. However me and DH are good at budgeting for food and bills etc and if things ever got really bad, we have family who could help us out a bit. I feel worried, though, about people who arent as fortunate as us and who are really struggling at the moment to support themselves.

So I looked online to see if I could donate food locally and I found somewhere and arranged to do this. But now I have had a proper look, I can see that apart from food donation, their other projects are pregnancy crisis counselling/Christian abortion counselling. I feel like a hypocrite. I am pro choice and I am not comfortable with 'pregnancy crisis counselling' as I feel like it misrepresents what is obviously an anti abortion stance. I feel that it tricks women into making decisions that are not neccessarily in their best interests.

I felt like I needed to write that down but given all the abortion threads recently, I feel it's better here. Do I just withdraw the offer of regular donations because I feel so uneasy or just think of the people it will help?

Sardine, a lot of women have private terminations for reasons of cofidentiality because they can contact an organisation offering this directly without involving their GP who has often known them since childhood and may also be a family friend. It's usually quicker too because they don't have to be placed on a waiting list and many women, at this point, just want the whole thing to be over.

Some of the well known names providing pregnancy services (I can't remember which ones off the top of my head) also have contracts with PCTs to provide abortion services for the NHS. As they are paid to do this imho this makes them less than impartial when they counsel women.

Imo most women do not regret having a termination, however, some do especially if they then go on to have fertility problems as they realise that the earlier pregnancy might have been their only chance to have a baby. It's devastating for them, really, and I feel so sad for them.

From what I understand, Life is a very helpful organisation for women who need post-termination counselling such as the ones that I've mentioned above. They offer help like that mentioned by hurricane which is very helpful for women who want to continue with their pregnancy (either to keep the baby or with possible adoption in mind). It removes the obstacles that might prevent them from going forward with their pregnancy if that's what they want to do.

So, op, if I were in your situation, I think I'd ring the organisation concerned and ask them about what they do and then make a decision about whether you would like to support their service.

I never considered it an industry, but I was shocked by the price. Iirc, it was in the region of 500 pounds, and this was almost 8 years ago. THat was for a straightforward, early aborion with just general anasthetic. I dread to think how much one would be where there was a need for sedation.

is link for channel 5 expose on crisis pregnancy counselling centres.

"Sardine, a lot of women have private terminations for reasons of cofidentiality because they can contact an organisation offering this directly without involving their GP who has often known them since childhood and may also be a family friend."

Isn't it shocking that unplanned pregnancy / abortion still result in such feelings of shame in our society.

booboo a general anaesthetic costs a bomb! I think that people don't realise the costs of these things (operations, drugs, physio etc) until they go private for something and then get a real shock! The NHS is of real value to us, without it most people would not be able to pay for a lot of the medical care they need in their lifetime.

I had an abortion in a private clinic, a woman with a Bible shouted at me not to kill my baby....it was my second termination and I was reluctant anyway. It made a hard situation worse. The first was in NHS care and I had to walk in the theatre with the 'tools' on show....they don't make it easy. I also had to have an internal scan with the monitor facing me.

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences crapola.

Thanks, it was a long time ago. x