JULIE: See the note to this post and links within it regarding the dispute on whether Haven volunteers are in a position to influence the abortion decision (they certainly have no problem with interfering with their guest’s automony regarding food choices or bedtimes or other matters). That post also disputes whether the women fully know what they are doing. In any event, since I’m anti-abortion and anti-choice, I have no problem with intervening in such situations to change the direction of the woman’s autonomy. I’d be curious to know whether after a woman has been talked out of an abortion by a sidewalk counselor or a crisis pregnancy center, you think it would be an immoral interference with her autonomy to talk her back into having one?

Do the women who go to Haven receive counseling to make sure they’re not being pressured into the abortion? Ms. Harris says that some women are threatened “convincingly” with death for getting pregnant — it seems to me you’d want to ask some probing questions in such a situation to make sure you’re not simply facilitating an abuser’s wishes.

Why? Why should Ms. Harris make the presumption that these women don’t know what they are doing? Why is it acceptable to presume that women cannot make their own decisions and must continuously have their decisions questioned again and again and again?

It is not for Ms. Harris or anyone else for that matter to question the perogative of these women. It is their body, their life, their choice. To begin to doubt their choice is to impinge upon their autonomy as fully functional persons.

Also, we’re talking about getting an abortion, not about stealing a car, jumping off a bridge or any other act that may obviously indicate a misunderstanding of the benefits versus the potential harm.

Then again, all potentialities of taking an action are always tempered by the potentiality that lies in not taking action.

Everyone knows quite well what consequences pregnancy and parenthood will reap, so again I ask, what is the necessity of Ms. Harris engaging in pre-abortion counseling?

And I am willing to guess that if Ms. Harris embarks on a crusade of dissuading and doubting, then she no longer hosts a safe haven does she?

And no woman that pursues an abortion does it lightly or without remorse at some level. It is a heartbreaking decision no matter how much you didn’t want the pregnancy to being with. And with this remorse comes denial and uncertainty.

Gotta call bullshit here. Not every woman feels remorse, denial, heartbreak or uncertainty with abortion. Not every woman wrings her hands over the choice. Many women feel positive emotions, relieved and empowered afterwards.

Childrearing is not always an informed choice. If we are 14. If we are 39 with two kids and no child support. Children take a lot of resources. Emotional and financial. Even to give them up to adoption, there is a huge physical and emotional commitment.

Every phase in a woman’s life presents a different ability to support and nuture a child.

I wish with all my heart that abortion was not necessary.

But it is.

And no woman that pursues an abortion does it lightly or without remorse at some level. It is a heartbreaking decision no matter how much you didn’t want the pregnancy to being with. And with this remorse comes denial and uncertainty.

Thank goodness there are still places these women can turn too.

Maybe it’s strange that I still think about them.

Jesus, no. I collect the stories of people I’ve met in my life — from the girls in the girls’ home I found myself in after getting caught stealing a car to the people I meet in my line of work today. All of them, all of them, stay with me. For good reason.