My job at the abortion hot line

[ismnotwasm]

The murder trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has exposed frightening corners of humanity — 30-week fetuses, jars of baby feet, venereal disease, snipped spinal cords, a refugee drugged to death, and unfortunately, more. Whatever the verdict, we may never understand Gosnell’s motivation. But what of the women who streamed into his allegedly filthy clinic for years? Who were they? Why would some of them have been seeking such late-term abortions? Why would they put their own lives at risk? As it happens, I think I have a pretty good idea.

I was 21, and for nine months in the mid-1990s, I worked as a hotline counselor on the toll-free line at the National Abortion Federation, a voluntary membership group of several hundred providers nationwide. Overtly, the job went like this: Women called to ask for a clinic near them, and I provided the address and phone number. Each clinic had been vetted by a NAF inspector. The clinics I could mention were not the only clinics out there. They met certain standards and agreed to pay a membership fee for the referral service.

But the job involved much more than that. Women had questions. I had answers. Some, anyway.

My guidelines and fact sheets were contained in a thick black-covered binder, which I scanned early on. Basically, I was to remind callers I wasn’t a doctor, and refer them to expert counseling services if needed. I wasn’t working for one of those church-based pregnancy counseling centers. I didn’t try to sway anyone, nor did I discuss the matter of “Should I or shouldn’t I?” Rather, I was like a crossing guard for abortion. The women knew where they wanted to go. I just helped them get there.

The phone rang every few minutes, all day long. Answering it was at once intimate, anonymous and terrifying.

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/my_job_at_the_abortion_hot_line/

[niyad]

1. thank you for posting this

[Sekhmets Daughter]

2. Excellent article....The conclusion is gut wrenching.

My work on the hot line was almost half my lifetime ago. Thinking about it reminds me of a time when I bore witness to the terrible truths of womanhood in America. An unwanted pregnancy can hurtle a woman onto a perilous landscape where the laws of man don’t protect her. You don’t hear about this dark side of life very often in the daylight. But look around you. One in three women have been there.

21 years later and the situation is even worse now!

Thanks for posting this.

[redqueen]

3. It enrages me that people treat this issue like a political football...

like a debatable issue.

We should be in control of our own goddamned reproductive systems. The fact that we are still fighting for this at this point in time makes me furious.

[CrispyQ]

4. We don't force men to support the children they father,

but they want to force women to become mothers. I've reached the point where I almost can't be friends with women who support the republican party. I have a friend who is a repub, although she told me that if Hilary Clinton runs, she'd vote for her in a flash, "unless Ron Paul runs, then I would vote for him." WTF?