They claim to be pro-women, but only on their terms. They are unabashedly and radically liberal; Claiming to be so under the guise of being Pro-women. Really, they are anti-Christian and have no idea what it means to be pro-woman. They look for cause to take offense at even a hint of slight towards inequality, even it if it is to the detriment of their so-called "victims". It's frustrating to say the least, I use their trend research for work...and inevitably articles like "I Provide Abortions Because I'm a Christian" catch my eye. Most of the silly ones like complaining that Sports Illustrated had the audacity to point out that female Olympians had gotten married since their performances I can ignore. But, a woman, a Christian, claiming that her Christianity is why she provides abortion?! I had to read. I have to comment. (Refinery 29 is unashamed about their pro-abortion stance..once again, claiming to be pro-women despite the awful ramifications for society, women, and individual women that abortion brings)
As I suspected, she actually didn't manage to mention Christ once, or even provide an argument for 'why' abortion is a Christian action. She merely pleaded for people to stop judging her (or, more accurately, that they stop telling her to repent). She had a platform to reach a largely unchurched, unChristian populous on their turf...and she completely squandered it by not sharing her faith even a little bit. She doesn't talk about her love of Christ, about the comfort he brings in this broken world, only points a finger at her fellow Christians and accuses them of not loving her enough and judges them for not condoning her actions, which we (all of orthodox Christendom) consider murder. This article will inspire no one to visit a church. It won't inspire anyone to pick up a Bible. It only serves to make you feel sorry for the women that go to visit her and wonder how, we as a society can do better for them. Women deserve better than abortion.
As I suspected, she actually didn't manage to mention Christ once, or even provide an argument for 'why' abortion is a Christian action. She merely pleaded for people to stop judging her (or, more accurately, that they stop telling her to repent). She had a platform to reach a largely unchurched, unChristian populous on their turf...and she completely squandered it by not sharing her faith even a little bit. She doesn't talk about her love of Christ, about the comfort he brings in this broken world, only points a finger at her fellow Christians and accuses them of not loving her enough and judges them for not condoning her actions, which we (all of orthodox Christendom) consider murder. This article will inspire no one to visit a church. It won't inspire anyone to pick up a Bible. It only serves to make you feel sorry for the women that go to visit her and wonder how, we as a society can do better for them. Women deserve better than abortion.
Article:
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/08/118383/christian-woman-abortion-doctor-reasoning
Text below, my comments in bold.
I am an abortion provider. I am, of course, a lot of other things, too a woman, an obstetrician-gynecologist, a mother. But being an abortion provider continues to shape my life and its trajectory, because I believe it is the most important thing that I will ever do.
Evidence 1 that you aren't a Christian...If you were, then worship, prayer, being a Christian example, having faith, etc etc....these are all examples of what a Christian might say is "the most important thing they will ever do" Participating in something that orthodox Christianity opposes almost unilaterally because it is murder, would not fit that criteria
I came to this work rather deliberately. I attended college knowing that I wanted to become a doctor. I went to medical school knowing that I wanted to help women. I became an obstetrician-gynecologist knowing that providing abortions was an integral part of the care that women require and deserve.
The existence of abortion is, in many ways, a failure of men and society as a whole to support women in their roles as mothers. Unless you only provide abortion when a woman's life is in danger, you aren't helping women. There are many better ways. For instance, you could volunteer at the Fifth Ward Pregnancy Center and support women who desperately need it, instead of charging them for killing their children, causing even more problems (both individually and socially) and telling them that is an option that they need and deserve.
I was also raised in a Christian home in Lexington, SC. My family went to church regularly, said prayers before meals, and I was taught from childhood that it was my duty to help people in need and leave the world a better place than I found it. The patients I see every day are so clearly people in need and the medical care I provide them is both life-changing and, in many circumstances, life-saving.
This isn't a statement of faith...this is just describing your surroundings. Where is Christ in this?
The compassion and empathy I learned from my Christian faith are fundamental to my work. Too often, women who choose to have an abortion face significant stigma and shame I see it every day. Patients have to walk by protestors screaming "murderer" and much worse just to get inside my clinic. One patient, a mother of four, couldn't stop telling me why she was getting an abortion, clearly feeling as though she needed to explain herself to me after walking by the protestors. She kept telling me that she already had a large family, she was struggling with money, her pregnancies were high-risk, and her partner agreed with her anything she could think of to make sure I understood her life and situation. Even to her abortion provider, she felt obligated to justify her decision, a task no one should ever have to do.
Fun fact: You are the murderer here. You exploit those women. Those protestors aren't right for being obnoxious, but you are part of the problem.
Sadly, this is all too common. My heart goes out to every woman who asks me if I think she is a bad person for seeking medically or personally necessary, legal care. But my faith teaches me to withhold judgment and to extend acceptance to all, and although she may not be ready to hear it at that moment, I always provide her with the reassurance that she needs. Good, moral women have abortions every day, and it's my obligation as a physician and a person of faith to provide at least one counterpoint to the shameful feelings a woman has and the misinformation she hears that cause her so much pain.
You don't understand your faith. Withholding Judgment? No, giving forgiveness. (forgiveness implies that repentance has been offered) Extending Acceptance means sharing the Gospel, not being complicit in sin.
This is especially important when stigma and shame force women into isolation. A woman's decision to pick a path that is right for her and her family too often leads to judgment and estrangement from her community, church, and support networks. One young woman I saw recently was in the clinic by herself no family, no friends. She had come from Mississippi, almost two hours away. She told me that she didn't have anyone in her life who was supporting her choice, and that many instead had tried to convince her to keep the pregnancy.
My patient explained that she wanted to finish college and hoped to be a mother someday but knew that she just wasn't ready right now. Because she didn't have anyone to take her to the clinic, she had to have the abortion with only local anesthesia. She did well during the procedure, but I couldn't stop thinking about her afterwards and how she would do with the long drive home, alone, with only her thoughts and the radio for company.
http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/ Send them to Silent No More. That girl will need a support system that helps deal with the ramifications and guilt of her actions.
Although not the same, being an abortion provider brings its own stigma, and we are often reluctant or afraid to talk about our work. Too many of my colleagues have been harassed or received death threats. Some were even murdered. This vicious cycle of violence and silence leaves the public with no positive images of abortion providers or the value in the work that we do, a challenge so extreme that I have even felt estranged from my colleagues in medicine because of their fear of association with a procedure that is "unpleasant" for many to think about or discuss. During my training, one of my mentors, whom I deeply respected, asked me unkindly why I was wasting my time providing abortions when I could be doing more important work.
Your colleagues think you are a butcher. Even if the "Service" you provide was truly needed (and not literally the darkest part of our society), it is grim and macabre and entirely "unpleasant" when you put the nicest face on it. Your job is to end lives. The nicest descriptor of it could be Kevorkian, except half of your patients have no say in the matter and they are the ones who die.
I also now feel uncomfortable in my own faith community a pillar in my life because of a lack of acceptance for my work, and I have distanced myself from what was once a strong support system for me.
They love you and they want you to come to repentance. They fear for you.
Then there are the legislative attacks on women and abortion providers attacks whose sole goal is clearly to make this work more difficult. I am subject to increased scrutiny of my medical practice with state legislation that preys on this stigma. Legislators, regardless of the fact that they have no medical knowledge or experience, create laws that interfere with the medical care I provide, because they do not like the work that I do.
For example, in Tennessee, where I currently practice, I am required to have admitting privileges in a local hospital and work in an ambulatory surgical center, regardless of the fact that abortion has an enviable record, with a 99% safety rate and a less than 1% serious complication rate. (In fact, women are more likely to have complications while getting their wisdom teeth extracted than while getting an abortion, according to a study published in 2015.) I amrequired to provide my patients with state-mandated information that is misleading and designed deliberately to discourage women from making an informed decision to have an abortion. My patients are forced to make two in-person visits to the health center at least 48 hours apart to receive the medical care they desire. These laws do nothing to keep my patients safe, and research has shown that many of these laws, in fact, harm the same womenthey're supposedly intended to help.
Oh darn, you may be held to the same practicing standards as your peers. You know, the ones you say that look down on you.
state mandated information that discourages women from being informed? I've seen the pamphlets, they are about as discouraging as the warning labels at the end of cialis commercial.
The Supreme Court's recent decision on state abortion laws, which struck down regulations that "severely" limited access to "safe and legal procedures," provides me with some hope that things will get better for abortion providers, but more importantly, for the women for whom we care. The Court, relying on scientific evidence and testimony from medical professionals, set a critical precedent that will help women and providers in states across the country where laws similar to the horrific one in Texas are being legislated.
While I celebrate the outcome of the case, I remain deeply concerned about the stigma and barriers that my patients face. I chose to be a provider, whereas no one chooses to have to face the decision to have an abortion. Many of my patients also have strong faith, and I hope that they can find the same comfort, acceptance, and understanding in their own lives as I have. For my part, I will continue to do what I can to make sure that they do.
I don't doubt that some of your patients have strong faith. I doubt that you do. Because those women come to you at their weakest, at their point of greatest temptation and you take their money and you kill their child while telling them that you are doing what is best for them. You have a unique and powerful position that you could do wonderful ministry...but instead you murder and you put yourself to bed at night saying it is for the best.
I'll pray that you, like so many others realize what you are doing. I hope one day you run into Carol Everett and that it opens your eyes. There is forgiveness.
Evidence 1 that you aren't a Christian...If you were, then worship, prayer, being a Christian example, having faith, etc etc....these are all examples of what a Christian might say is "the most important thing they will ever do" Participating in something that orthodox Christianity opposes almost unilaterally because it is murder, would not fit that criteria
I came to this work rather deliberately. I attended college knowing that I wanted to become a doctor. I went to medical school knowing that I wanted to help women. I became an obstetrician-gynecologist knowing that providing abortions was an integral part of the care that women require and deserve.
The existence of abortion is, in many ways, a failure of men and society as a whole to support women in their roles as mothers. Unless you only provide abortion when a woman's life is in danger, you aren't helping women. There are many better ways. For instance, you could volunteer at the Fifth Ward Pregnancy Center and support women who desperately need it, instead of charging them for killing their children, causing even more problems (both individually and socially) and telling them that is an option that they need and deserve.
I was also raised in a Christian home in Lexington, SC. My family went to church regularly, said prayers before meals, and I was taught from childhood that it was my duty to help people in need and leave the world a better place than I found it. The patients I see every day are so clearly people in need and the medical care I provide them is both life-changing and, in many circumstances, life-saving.
This isn't a statement of faith...this is just describing your surroundings. Where is Christ in this?
The compassion and empathy I learned from my Christian faith are fundamental to my work. Too often, women who choose to have an abortion face significant stigma and shame I see it every day. Patients have to walk by protestors screaming "murderer" and much worse just to get inside my clinic. One patient, a mother of four, couldn't stop telling me why she was getting an abortion, clearly feeling as though she needed to explain herself to me after walking by the protestors. She kept telling me that she already had a large family, she was struggling with money, her pregnancies were high-risk, and her partner agreed with her anything she could think of to make sure I understood her life and situation. Even to her abortion provider, she felt obligated to justify her decision, a task no one should ever have to do.
Fun fact: You are the murderer here. You exploit those women. Those protestors aren't right for being obnoxious, but you are part of the problem.
Sadly, this is all too common. My heart goes out to every woman who asks me if I think she is a bad person for seeking medically or personally necessary, legal care. But my faith teaches me to withhold judgment and to extend acceptance to all, and although she may not be ready to hear it at that moment, I always provide her with the reassurance that she needs. Good, moral women have abortions every day, and it's my obligation as a physician and a person of faith to provide at least one counterpoint to the shameful feelings a woman has and the misinformation she hears that cause her so much pain.
You don't understand your faith. Withholding Judgment? No, giving forgiveness. (forgiveness implies that repentance has been offered) Extending Acceptance means sharing the Gospel, not being complicit in sin.
This is especially important when stigma and shame force women into isolation. A woman's decision to pick a path that is right for her and her family too often leads to judgment and estrangement from her community, church, and support networks. One young woman I saw recently was in the clinic by herself no family, no friends. She had come from Mississippi, almost two hours away. She told me that she didn't have anyone in her life who was supporting her choice, and that many instead had tried to convince her to keep the pregnancy.
My patient explained that she wanted to finish college and hoped to be a mother someday but knew that she just wasn't ready right now. Because she didn't have anyone to take her to the clinic, she had to have the abortion with only local anesthesia. She did well during the procedure, but I couldn't stop thinking about her afterwards and how she would do with the long drive home, alone, with only her thoughts and the radio for company.
http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/ Send them to Silent No More. That girl will need a support system that helps deal with the ramifications and guilt of her actions.
Although not the same, being an abortion provider brings its own stigma, and we are often reluctant or afraid to talk about our work. Too many of my colleagues have been harassed or received death threats. Some were even murdered. This vicious cycle of violence and silence leaves the public with no positive images of abortion providers or the value in the work that we do, a challenge so extreme that I have even felt estranged from my colleagues in medicine because of their fear of association with a procedure that is "unpleasant" for many to think about or discuss. During my training, one of my mentors, whom I deeply respected, asked me unkindly why I was wasting my time providing abortions when I could be doing more important work.
Your colleagues think you are a butcher. Even if the "Service" you provide was truly needed (and not literally the darkest part of our society), it is grim and macabre and entirely "unpleasant" when you put the nicest face on it. Your job is to end lives. The nicest descriptor of it could be Kevorkian, except half of your patients have no say in the matter and they are the ones who die.
I also now feel uncomfortable in my own faith community a pillar in my life because of a lack of acceptance for my work, and I have distanced myself from what was once a strong support system for me.
They love you and they want you to come to repentance. They fear for you.
Then there are the legislative attacks on women and abortion providers attacks whose sole goal is clearly to make this work more difficult. I am subject to increased scrutiny of my medical practice with state legislation that preys on this stigma. Legislators, regardless of the fact that they have no medical knowledge or experience, create laws that interfere with the medical care I provide, because they do not like the work that I do.
For example, in Tennessee, where I currently practice, I am required to have admitting privileges in a local hospital and work in an ambulatory surgical center, regardless of the fact that abortion has an enviable record, with a 99% safety rate and a less than 1% serious complication rate. (In fact, women are more likely to have complications while getting their wisdom teeth extracted than while getting an abortion, according to a study published in 2015.) I amrequired to provide my patients with state-mandated information that is misleading and designed deliberately to discourage women from making an informed decision to have an abortion. My patients are forced to make two in-person visits to the health center at least 48 hours apart to receive the medical care they desire. These laws do nothing to keep my patients safe, and research has shown that many of these laws, in fact, harm the same womenthey're supposedly intended to help.
Oh darn, you may be held to the same practicing standards as your peers. You know, the ones you say that look down on you.
state mandated information that discourages women from being informed? I've seen the pamphlets, they are about as discouraging as the warning labels at the end of cialis commercial.
The Supreme Court's recent decision on state abortion laws, which struck down regulations that "severely" limited access to "safe and legal procedures," provides me with some hope that things will get better for abortion providers, but more importantly, for the women for whom we care. The Court, relying on scientific evidence and testimony from medical professionals, set a critical precedent that will help women and providers in states across the country where laws similar to the horrific one in Texas are being legislated.
While I celebrate the outcome of the case, I remain deeply concerned about the stigma and barriers that my patients face. I chose to be a provider, whereas no one chooses to have to face the decision to have an abortion. Many of my patients also have strong faith, and I hope that they can find the same comfort, acceptance, and understanding in their own lives as I have. For my part, I will continue to do what I can to make sure that they do.
I don't doubt that some of your patients have strong faith. I doubt that you do. Because those women come to you at their weakest, at their point of greatest temptation and you take their money and you kill their child while telling them that you are doing what is best for them. You have a unique and powerful position that you could do wonderful ministry...but instead you murder and you put yourself to bed at night saying it is for the best.
I'll pray that you, like so many others realize what you are doing. I hope one day you run into Carol Everett and that it opens your eyes. There is forgiveness.
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