An Abortion Outrage
I've hesitated to comment on the this story, but I think it may be time to say something. I've seen it several different places, so I guess I'll add my voice to it.
So what we have here is an outrage. Mom and dad were denied the right to even speak to their daughter, despite the fact that the daughter heard her mother AND ASKED TO SPEAK TO HER while waiting for the "procedure".
This is in keeping with stories I have heard from folks who have dealt with Hopeless "Clinic" in the past. The individuals involved in these stories have become active in the prolife movement, and have told them at public events, so I am not violating any confidences in telling them. You see, Hopeless "Clinic" was the facility that "served" the diocese I studied for and the school I taught at when I lived in the area.
One of my friends, whose pro-life activism came after her underage daughter was "treated" at the facility, told me the story of her family. It seems the daughter went to prom, and she agreed to allow her daughter to spend the night at her boyfriend's house because (she assumed) that the kids would sleep in separate rooms. Wrong -- mom and did let the kids share a bedroom, with the not terribly surprising result. The daughter missed two periods, and didn't tell mom because she was afraid and ashamed (sin does that to a person -- read Genesis). Also, boyfriend and his mother were "encouraging" and abortion -- and on what was supposed to be an outing to St. Louis took her instead to the clinic while browbeating her to abort. She was 30 miles from home, sitting in the cab of a pickup between mom and boyfriend, and was driven to the "clinic" for the "procedure." She was coerced into signing and going through with the abortion, and then dumped home when it was all over.
Mom and Dad found out that after noon what happened. They (mom, dad, and daughter) requested the medical records, and Hopeless "Clinic" refused to produce them, then claimed they could not be found. It took a court order to get the records -- and it turned out that the daughter was never pregnant in the first place! That was why Hopeless had fought to hard to "protect a woman's right to privacy" from her own attempts to gain information about her own medical treatment!
And then there was one of my own students. She was pregnant, and wanted to talk to her boyfriend, another one of my students. She wanted to keep the baby, but the boyfriend didn't want the responsibility, and was afraid of losing the chance to go play baseball at a major midwestern university (I hear he is still in the minor leagues). He persuaded her that an abortion was the best thing, though she still wanted the baby. He got her as far as the Hopeless "Clinic" parking lot before she said no. He parked against the fence around the lot, told her she wasn't getting out of the car or going home until she was no longer pregnant. Hopeless "Clinic" staff came out and supported the boyfriend, telling her it was normal to be nervous and doubtful. She went in and was aborted -- even though before the procedure started she told the abortionist that she didn't want the procedure. She tells me the abortionist simply sedated her said "Just you hush, now, you'll feel much better about this when it is all over."
Several months later, during the Senior Class retreat, I mentioned something in passing about the pain of losing a wanted child (my wife and I had our first miscarriage two weeks before). She came to me a while later to talk -- and we talked for a very long time as she poured out her heart. I helped her get counseling, and put her in touch with someone who helped her get legal aid. But it seems that Hopeless "Clinic" and other facilities are immune from liability for performing a surgical procedure once you sign the consent form, because they do not record oral revocations of consent to protect themselves.
So as you might imagine, I am not surprised to read about the case in the story. Hopeless "Clinic" is in it for the money, not to help girls and women. They don't care is consent is real or coerced, so long as they get paid.
GRANITE CITY - A southern Illinois woman was arrested last week (March 17) after trying to intervene on behalf of her 14-year old daughter's effort to have an abortion. The girl was allegedly taken to an abortion clinic by the mother of the man allegedly to have impregnated the 14-year old.
According to the girl's mother, her 14-year old daughter was called off from school in Madison County by a woman posing as the girl's “grandmother.” The woman took the girl from her home only minutes before the girl’s mother returned home from work.
It was later determined that the woman who had posed as the "grandmother" to the school authorities was the mother of the male who had fathered the unborn child the 14-year old girl was carrying. The age of the male has not been released.
When the parents were notified their pregnant daughter was not at school, they suspected she had been taken to the Hope Abortion Clinic in Granite City. The parents and grandfather were the only persons authorized to request school absence for the fourteen year old female.
So what we have here is an outrage. Mom and dad were denied the right to even speak to their daughter, despite the fact that the daughter heard her mother AND ASKED TO SPEAK TO HER while waiting for the "procedure".
This is in keeping with stories I have heard from folks who have dealt with Hopeless "Clinic" in the past. The individuals involved in these stories have become active in the prolife movement, and have told them at public events, so I am not violating any confidences in telling them. You see, Hopeless "Clinic" was the facility that "served" the diocese I studied for and the school I taught at when I lived in the area.
One of my friends, whose pro-life activism came after her underage daughter was "treated" at the facility, told me the story of her family. It seems the daughter went to prom, and she agreed to allow her daughter to spend the night at her boyfriend's house because (she assumed) that the kids would sleep in separate rooms. Wrong -- mom and did let the kids share a bedroom, with the not terribly surprising result. The daughter missed two periods, and didn't tell mom because she was afraid and ashamed (sin does that to a person -- read Genesis). Also, boyfriend and his mother were "encouraging" and abortion -- and on what was supposed to be an outing to St. Louis took her instead to the clinic while browbeating her to abort. She was 30 miles from home, sitting in the cab of a pickup between mom and boyfriend, and was driven to the "clinic" for the "procedure." She was coerced into signing and going through with the abortion, and then dumped home when it was all over.
Mom and Dad found out that after noon what happened. They (mom, dad, and daughter) requested the medical records, and Hopeless "Clinic" refused to produce them, then claimed they could not be found. It took a court order to get the records -- and it turned out that the daughter was never pregnant in the first place! That was why Hopeless had fought to hard to "protect a woman's right to privacy" from her own attempts to gain information about her own medical treatment!
And then there was one of my own students. She was pregnant, and wanted to talk to her boyfriend, another one of my students. She wanted to keep the baby, but the boyfriend didn't want the responsibility, and was afraid of losing the chance to go play baseball at a major midwestern university (I hear he is still in the minor leagues). He persuaded her that an abortion was the best thing, though she still wanted the baby. He got her as far as the Hopeless "Clinic" parking lot before she said no. He parked against the fence around the lot, told her she wasn't getting out of the car or going home until she was no longer pregnant. Hopeless "Clinic" staff came out and supported the boyfriend, telling her it was normal to be nervous and doubtful. She went in and was aborted -- even though before the procedure started she told the abortionist that she didn't want the procedure. She tells me the abortionist simply sedated her said "Just you hush, now, you'll feel much better about this when it is all over."
Several months later, during the Senior Class retreat, I mentioned something in passing about the pain of losing a wanted child (my wife and I had our first miscarriage two weeks before). She came to me a while later to talk -- and we talked for a very long time as she poured out her heart. I helped her get counseling, and put her in touch with someone who helped her get legal aid. But it seems that Hopeless "Clinic" and other facilities are immune from liability for performing a surgical procedure once you sign the consent form, because they do not record oral revocations of consent to protect themselves.
So as you might imagine, I am not surprised to read about the case in the story. Hopeless "Clinic" is in it for the money, not to help girls and women. They don't care is consent is real or coerced, so long as they get paid.
posted by Greg at
3/27/2005 04:49:00 PM
