Mothers
Pregnant mothers face various forms of coercion to undergo abortion. Where abortion is at-issue, in fact, the majority of women who have had abortions (64%) report afterward that they were pressured into the decision.
The abortion industry self-identifies as pro-choice, but in reality, choice has little to do with the abortion transaction. Businesses desperate to maintain dwindling profits, unsupportive loved ones, and a misguided attitude toward the preborn drown the woman’s own voice when she is already vulnerable and upset. With the documented severity of psychological and physical repercussions of abortion, protection from coercion becomes even more essential in ensuring that the best interests of mother and child are protected.
Far from enshrining these protections, the abortion industry operates on omission: they omit important questions about coercion during pre-abortion “counseling” and fail to provide information about the effects of a coerced abortion. Under current Texas law, in fact, there is no explicit measure prohibiting any individual from coercing a woman into abortion.
Does a legal prohibition of coercion seem necessary? After all, we might ask, what “pro-woman” business would follow through on an abortion where coercion is an obvious factor? The answer to that question is shocking: Planned Parenthood has been caught on-camera on numerous occasions abetting, aiding, and ignoring the coercion. The incidences are so flippant as to suggest that such behavior is part of the company’s business model. Watch the video below to see one example of their coercion cooperation:
Coercion is not only limited to violence, but also include other scenarios.
An employer threatens to terminate the mother’s job if she continues her pregnancy.
A boyfriend or spouse forcibly brings the mother to an abortion mill or commits violence against her with the intention of harming the child.
A school counselor decides that a minor at her school should have an abortion and sends the girl to an abortion mill that will circumvent parental involvement.
Parents threaten to kick their young daughter with nowhere to go out of the house if she does not undergo an abortion.
Coercion encompasses any situation in which a pregnant mother is made to feel – by any means – that she has no choice but an abortion. Coercion sends a mother into the belief that either the baby dies or I will die or suffer great harm. Pitting a pregnant mother against the very person she is entrusted to protect is abortion coercion, and the abortion industry thrives on this imposed tension between mother and child.