Abortion Doulas

Abortion activists like to use the same words we pro-lifers use, but they’re using an entirely different dictionary. Case in point: the word “doula.”“Do you think that God hates me?”The teenage girl—who is about to have an abortion—is asking the question of a woman she has just met, who is there to keep her company during the procedure.“No,” the woman replies. “I think God knows we have to make tough choices sometimes.”It’s a cartoon conversation, published by a group calling itself The Doula Project. And going by this and other information on its website, one of its goals is to teach women—who call themselves “abortion doulas”—how to help abortion clients overcome any religious or moral scruples they may have about taking the life of their unborn child.If you’ve never heard of a doula, traditionally she’s a woman who helps mothers through the birth process. Doulas meet their clients months before birth, and get to know them. They assist the mothers through the entire labor and delivery. And when the new mother goes home, many doulas go with her to help with housework and meals for up to six weeks.In other words, the doula participates in a life-giving, life-affirming, communal act, welcoming a child into the larger community.But the term “doula” has, like many other terms, been appropriated by the culture of death in order to hide the horror of what is actually taking place.“Abortion doulas,” so-called, will hold a woman’s hand, keeping her calm while her baby’s life is snuffed out, brushing aside last-minute fears that what she is doing may violate core religious beliefs.One abortion “doula,” Vicki Bloom, tells BBC News that she has sat with more than 2,000 women as they waited for their abortions, and accompanied them into surgery. She calms their nerves, tells them they’re good people, and wipes away their tears as their babies’ lives are terminated. But Bloom backs away from any effort to give these women what they may really want: a way out that doesn’t involve destroying the life of their child.According to the Guttmacher Institute, about half of all women who seek abortions are poor. This means many women likely feel pressured by circumstances, or partners, to take their baby’s life.Abortion “doula” Vicki Bloom knows this. She says, “A lot of women will … say things like, ‘I really wanted this baby but I don’t have enough money.’” But Bloom shrugs this off. “I can’t fix somebody’s life, no matter how much I might want to,” she says.But does she even try? For instance, does she tell poor women that pregnancy care centers, like the one my wife runs, offer financial assistance, nursery subsidies, and work programs? If a young girl says her parents will throw her out if she has the baby, does the “doula” say, “I know someone who will open her home to you during your entire pregnancy. I’ll take you there right now, if you want.” Or does she say, “I know couples of all races who would love to adopt your child, and will take care of your medical expenses?”And when a client confides that she has profound misgivings about the morality of what she is about to do—that abortion violates her deeply-held religious beliefs—does the “doula” say, “You don’t have to do this?”No, she doesn’t—which I find appalling. And if she did, the abortion staff would throw her out. Good grief, they don’t want women having second thoughts: It would cut into their profit margin.Clearly, these “abortion doulas” are committed, not to truly helping women, but to their own deadly agenda.We need to beware when life-affirming words are twisted into something Orwellian. As John Stonestreet said on The Point recently, it is not “compassionate” to hold a mother’s hand while she terminates the life of her child. A “doula” welcomes life, she doesn’t destroy it.And I hope you will support true doula organizations, which you will find online. Doulas who lovingly offer, free of charge, real help to women and their babies who need them.Folks, if you truly care about the sanctity of human life and other important issues, please vote next Tuesday. It's incredibly important.