Ms. Magazine Ignored Petitions From Women Who Regret Abortions 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 4, 2006
Beverly Hills, CA (LifeNews.com) — In an election-year effort to rally abortion advocates, Ms. Magazine plans to include the names of women who have had abortions and are happy about the decision in its next issue. However, Ms. is coming under fire from women who tried to tell the magazine’s editors they regret their abortions.
Georgette Forney, the head of a national group for women who wish they could undo their abortion decision, says she knows of many women who submitted petitions to Ms. saying their abortion decision was something that plagued them the rest of their lives.
Forney told LifeNews.com that the womens magazine ignored their comments.
"Silent No More women from across the country submitted petitions to Ms. Magazine asking that their voices be included in the ‘We had abortions,’ campaign," Forney told LifeNews.com in exclusive comments.
"But, the magazine did not even extend the courtesy of a response," Forney said.
Forney, who had an abortion herself at age 16 and strongly regrets her decision, said a magazine "that is supposed to be all about women" is leaving out the voices of perhaps millions of women who don’t agree abortion is pro-woman.
She said the refusal to include any comments from women who regret their abortions shows outreach efforts like the Silent No More Awareness Campaign are making a dent in the argument that abortion is a panacea for women with an unexpected pregnancy.
"Obviously Ms. Magazine’s providing only a venue for voices that support [abortion] illustrates the effectiveness of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign," she said.
Knowing that the magazine planned to have the feature story on women having abortions, Luana Stoltenberg, the Iowa leader of another post-abortion group, Operation Outcry, wrote the editors about her own abortion experience.
Stoltenberg, who has been interviewed by numerous mainstream media outlets and writes eloquently about her abortion regret, received a curt reply from Ms. magazine senior editor Michele Kort.
"[J]ust because you had a negative experience and post-abortion regrets does not mean that the choice to have an abortion should be made illegal—or extremely difficult—for the millions of women who still would make that choice," the editors wrote her.
Stoltenberg responded by saying Ms. magazine is doing a disservice to women by ignoring those who know their abortion destroyed their lives.
"Your response shows no compassion whatsoever," she responded. "Why am I being told to be tolerant and know your side but you refuse to listen to my side?"
"How is it that you can profess to care about all women and refuse them the information to truly be educated and informed about the ‘choice’ they could make?" Stoltenberg added. "That doesn’t seem caring at all to me. It seems that you are driven by your agenda and not by your concern for women."
Ms. magazine is also coming under fire for using the abortion petition as a fund-raising tool.
The magazine is owned and operated by the Feminist Majority Foundation, a pro-abortion group, and women who sign the online petition are urged to make a donation to the organization.
In a poll on the Ms. magazine story sponsored by AOL, 109,735 people responded and 51 percent said they thought it was a "bad idea." Just 24 percent felt the story was a good idea and 25 percent had mixed feelings.
Ms. magazine has been urging its readers to respond to the poll.
ACTION: Express your views to Ms. magazine: Ms. Petition, 1600 Wilson Blvd. Suite 801, Arlington, VA 22209, 866-444-3652. You can also email Ms. magazine senior editor Michelle Kort at [email protected]
Related web sites:
Silent No More Awareness Campaign – https://www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org
Operation Outcry: Silent No More – http:/www.operationoutcry.org
