This month in the New York metro, there are posters up from "Abortion Changes You" sponsored by the Family Life Office http://www.abortionchangesyou.com/home which seem to be causing a stir in the pro abortion world.

"Abortion Changes You" is a web site begun by a post abortive women MichaeIene Fredenburg to invite post abortive women and men in to healing.

The article is "Abortion Foes Invade the New York Metro"http://trueslant.com/franjohns/2010/03/10/abortion-foes-invade-ny-metro/

I particularly love this paragraph in the article :

“The campaign suggests that feelings of sadness and self-harm are the
universal experiences for someone who had an abortion,” said Samantha
Levine of NARAL Pro-Choice New York. “And there’s no evidence to suggest that that’s true.”

No evidence to suggest that is true? While I agree it may not be "universal" (you know those women who abortion does not bother?)  I wish Samantha would call me (which of course she will not). I can introduce her to hundreds of women who would beg to differ, and if it does not exist, why are they so worried?

I like the "Abortion Changes You" ads a lot…my only hesitation is, only their web site is listed versus actual resources in the area, so, someone hurting needs to remember the site (try writing that down on the crowded subway, especially if you are filled with shame) go home, look it up and then proceed to find help…lots of steps for people hurting while as a local number could just be memorized..anyway..

here is the article in full:

Abortion foes invade NY Metro

A new attack on reproductive rights is underway, this time on New York City subways. As if the Georgia anti-choice campaign linking abortion rights to Black genocide or the Polish campaign
linking abortion to Hitler weren’t enough, now we have a soft sell
campaign complete with well-dressed women ostensibly traumatized by a
past abortion and downcast men who  yearn to be good fathers.  Come on,
folks. Is it possible that (often poor, often desperate) women choosing
to have an abortion have perfectly good brains, and not many of them
have the man in question offering support?

The 2,000 ads, which straphangers (are now seeing) in
nearly every subway station, depict either a woman saying, “I thought
life would be the way it was before,” or a man saying, “I often wonder
if there was something I could have done to help her.”

Many people, certainly including this writer, will have reservations about all this.

“The campaign suggests that feelings of sadness and
self-harm are the universal experiences for someone who had an
abortion,” said Samantha Levine of NARAL Pro-Choice New York. “And there’s no evidence to suggest that that’s true.”

“The organization behind these ads has an agenda,” continued Levine.
“They aren’t seeking to help women — they’re seeking to get abortion
banned.”

But Michaelene Fredenburg, who started San Diego-based Abortion
Changes You (25 years) after her own abortion, says her ads are more
about helping people than politics.

“I had an abortion when I was 18,” said Fredenburg, 44. “I had a hard time … I wanted to reach out and say you’re not alone.”

Fredenburg’s agenda could be broader than Levine suggests, or
narrower, depending on your degree of cynicism. She has, surprise, a
book. You can purchase it on her website
at a 20% discount, for $19.95. Plus “outreach materials” that include
cards ($20 for 250), posters (set of three, $50.) A disclaimer at the
bottom of most pages says it is “not a professional counseling site” or
meant to replace such, but you are offered ‘Healing Pathways’ to follow
or other readers’ stories to read.

Fredenburg was 8 when Roe v Wade
paved the way for her to choose a safe, legal abortion 10 years later.
Had that not been the case, she might well have joined the uncounted
thousands who died at the hands of back alley butchers rather than
lived to create an organization. Contributions are invited, and
purportedly tax deductible, although there is no mention of 501(c)3
status. Miscellaneous retreats (and the phone number of a suicide
prevention hotline) are listed under the ‘Find Help’ button. Planned
Parenthood is notably not listed, although they often help, and they do
not force anyone to have an abortion.

I have no reason, other than it seems a great way to sell stuff and
make a few bucks, to question Fredenburg’s altruistic intentions in
founding Abortion Changes You. (PS, so does an unwanted pregnancy.) But
if she is not in cahoots with those who seek to eliminate a woman’s
right to control her own body, she is their tool. Should they succeed,
women will return to a dark age that today’s 44-year-olds cannot begin
to imagine.

When Fredenburg agrees to fight for all women’s right to control
their own bodies, and to have access to the safe, sterile, legal
abortion she presumably chose for herself, as well as to console others
who have long-afterward regrets, I’ll buy her book.