Group Gives Women Goodie Bag With Chocolates and Tea After They Abort Their Baby

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jan 11, 2016   |   2:16PM   |   Washington, DC

A Portland, Oregon group is offering women goody bags with chocolates and tea in a paltry attempt to soothe the pain that many feel after an abortion.

The new pro-abortion group Cascades Abortion Support Collective works with women in the Portland area both before and after they have abortions, connecting them with volunteer abortion doulas and giving them goody bags and abortion information, the website Street Roots reports.

The group’s founders, Ariel and Meg, who refused to give their last names, told the website that they began in 2015 as a small group of abortion activists who wanted to provide “logistical, physical, emotional and informational support” to women. They said the group has “supported” 10 people through abortions since it began.

The all-volunteer group says its mission is to “fight abortion’s social stigma by empowering those it serves through the experiences before, during and after ending a pregnancy.”

The group blames the pain that many post-abortive women feel on “stigma” from pro-lifers, rather than the source – aborting their unborn baby. But in an indirect way, the group seems to realize the true source of their patients’ pain by linking abortion to other child-loss experiences like miscarriage, surrogacy and stillbirth. The group also provides support for women grieving the loss of their children from these experiences.

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The article focuses specifically on the group’s abortion work:

Here’s how they work: A ring to the CASC’s phone number connects callers with an available member of the collective who then does a short intake interview, understanding what procedure or experience the caller is seeking support for and getting a feel for their specific needs. The caller is then matched with the collective’s best suited doula and the two meet in a public place to further discuss what the caller wants from their abortion experience. Before the abortion procedure, the doula is there to answer questions about the procedure and help the person formulate questions for a medical provider. During the procedure, however, the doula’s role can vary from intimate support such as holding the patient’s hand or applying accupressure points to more hands-off support methods such as fetching water or waiting in the other room to be there when it’s all over.

“It’s such a different experience for different people, which is why we really try to focus on having broad skills knowing that what people need is going to be vastly different,” said Heather, an abortion doula and collective member. Support continues after the procedure is over, with abortion doulas checking in one day, one week and one month afterward to offer a listening ear, advice or connection to more longer term community resources if necessary. Collective members also send each person home with abortion after-care kits containing heat wraps, sanitary pads, tea, chocolate, chapstick, candles and a list of after-care resources.

The Portland group said it has the support of the radical pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America, which supports aborting unborn babies up until birth, and the Oregon-based Network for Reproductive Options.

Rather than provide support for the woman and her baby, the Portland-based group creates more trauma by encouraging women to abort their unborn babies and then offering them the “support” of goody bags.

On the other hand, pro-life post-abortion healing organizations, such as Rachel’s Vineyard, have helped thousands of women and men find healing from past abortions by addressing the core issue: the loss of their unborn baby’s life. In a compassionate, confidential setting, these programs encourage women and men to grieve their unborn babies and forgive themselves.

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