I’ve heard you can supposedly reverse homosexuality and even get your virginity back, but this is a new one – Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota has proclaimed April to be Abortion Recovery Month. Now on first impression, the very name connotes ghastly images of fetuses being fished out of a dumpster somewhere – obviously the kind of holiday that could only be thought up by a male pro-lifer, the kind of idiot who thinks babies are produced the way it was portrayed in 1950s movies, after about fifteen minutes of a man pacing outside a delivery room door while smoking a cigar. I mean, what could these sick bastards possibly want with your old abortions?
But wait – it’s not that at all. Apparently Abortion Recovery Month is designed to honor all the abortion recovery programs in the state of Minnesota – which must surely have no other concern than for the mental and physical well-being of patients who have undergone abortions, right?
Well probably not. Just like those Crisis Pregnancy Centers that promise objective compassionate assistance to young pregnant women and then do everything they can to cajole, terrify and guilt-trip them into carrying their pregnancies to term, the abortion recovery counseling programs I Googled seem like religious rackets with a pro-life agenda, sometimes in the open and sometimes not so obvious.
Worst of all, they certainly doesn’t seem to be offering real counseling. If a therapist were to say to me, “In America we have a big drug problem, and we don’t realize it’s because of abortion,” I’d conclude that person was in more need of help than I was, starting with what constitutes a provable statement and what doesn’t. But these same counseling organizations offer certificates in abortion counseling after nothing more than a fraction of a semester of completely religious training.
Maybe Pawlenty’s proclamation really does honor some few souls out there who specialize in helping women get over the emotional trauma of abortion – and they doubtless deserve recognition. But right now the field seems dominated by proselytizing vultures who, with no actual secular training, descend on hurt and confused young women intending on converting them to faithful guilt-ridden tithing machines who can be counted on to vote against letting anyone else have the choice they felt was necessary at the time. And those charlatans don’t need recognition, because their reward is in heaven – whatever simpleminded, dogmatic, shrill millstone of a heaven happens to take them.
But wait – it’s not that at all. Apparently Abortion Recovery Month is designed to honor all the abortion recovery programs in the state of Minnesota – which must surely have no other concern than for the mental and physical well-being of patients who have undergone abortions, right?
Well probably not. Just like those Crisis Pregnancy Centers that promise objective compassionate assistance to young pregnant women and then do everything they can to cajole, terrify and guilt-trip them into carrying their pregnancies to term, the abortion recovery counseling programs I Googled seem like religious rackets with a pro-life agenda, sometimes in the open and sometimes not so obvious.
Worst of all, they certainly doesn’t seem to be offering real counseling. If a therapist were to say to me, “In America we have a big drug problem, and we don’t realize it’s because of abortion,” I’d conclude that person was in more need of help than I was, starting with what constitutes a provable statement and what doesn’t. But these same counseling organizations offer certificates in abortion counseling after nothing more than a fraction of a semester of completely religious training.
Maybe Pawlenty’s proclamation really does honor some few souls out there who specialize in helping women get over the emotional trauma of abortion – and they doubtless deserve recognition. But right now the field seems dominated by proselytizing vultures who, with no actual secular training, descend on hurt and confused young women intending on converting them to faithful guilt-ridden tithing machines who can be counted on to vote against letting anyone else have the choice they felt was necessary at the time. And those charlatans don’t need recognition, because their reward is in heaven – whatever simpleminded, dogmatic, shrill millstone of a heaven happens to take them.
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Abortion Recovery Awareness Month (ARAM) was established in April 2005 by Abortion Recovery InterNational, Inc. (ARIN) as a way to encourage and extend healing opportunities to individuals and families hurting from an abortion experience.
Co-founders Stacy Massey and Christine Jackman believed abortion recovery was just as significant as other awareness efforts.
During the month of April, ARIN Affiliates and Advocates enlighten society by reaching out to others in their community through many different venue.
An Abortion Recovery Awareness Calendar for the month of April is established each year providing ideas and resources.
Abortion Recovery Awareness Month is secular-friendly. It is free of condemnation, judgment or negative connotations. It has no political agenda!
The ultimate goal is to share compassionate abortion recovery efforts with others and offer help, healing and hope!
To assist ARIN Affiliates, Advocates and others participating, we have produced a line of awareness materials which help to promote and encourage healing.
Read more about it at: http://www.abortionrecoveryawarenessmonth.org
Tracy, it's nonsense that ARAM is secular-friendly. Name an abortion recovery organization that's secular. Name an organization that issues a certificate in abortion recovery counseling that's secular.
Why aren't there any? Because empirically successful forms of counseling treat abortion along with the other array of traumatic events that people deal with using a suite of tested techniques. Abortion isn't singled out for special attention by organizations whose agenda involves preconceived ideas about divinity and how that plays out in recovery, or who give abortion some sort of outsized role in shaping the psyche and society.
There's a reason I cited the notions of "curing" homosexuality and getting one's virginity back in my first paragraph -- because all these practices start with a faith-based premise and then bend the facts, practices, analysis and publicity around that belief, never rejecting the premise if it's shown to be wrong.
Abortion recovery counseling as it's practiced by religious organizations who certify people in the practice with no actual training in, say, social work or psychology, have no business passing themselves off as specialized missionaries. At best they'll get lucky and won't do any harm -- at worst they'll mess people up for a long time.
Is he looking for a baby in the back of the car?
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