Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Woman Silenced at New Jersey
Senate Hearing Shares Her Story

"I Was Pushed, Silenced and Coerced Before Abortion …
Now I Am Being Pushed, Silenced and Coerced Into Shutting Up Again"

A woman testifying at a New Jersey Senate hearing about undergoing a coerced abortion was stopped from speaking after being told that she couldn’t talk about her experience with Planned Parenthood. Now she is sharing the story that she wasn't allowed to tell at the hearing.

Darlene Dunn was testifying at a budget hearing about a bill to provide government funds to Planned Parenthood and other “family planning” centers. She said she wanted to share her story to convince senators that they should not give funding to a group that violates women’s rights.
 

Instead, she was told by Sen. Paul Sarlo, a co-sponsor of the bill, that she could only talk about “family planning and health care,” and that her personal story wasn’t relevant to the bill.
 

Dunn disagreed. “When you are scared to death in a crisis pregnancy and [are] told that you have one option, that is not family planning,” she told senators. “That is coerced abortion.”

Speaking after the hearing, she added, “Performing abortions is not women’s health care.”
 

Two other legislators, Sen. Joseph Pennacchio and Sen. Michael Doherty, spoke up in defense of Dunn’s right to speak. But when Dunn attempted to continue her testimony, she was told she had already had her chance to testify. Dunn and other pro-life advocates present at the hearing say she was then ordered by Sarlo to turn off her microphone, but that this was not included in audio recordings of the hearing that were posted online.

read the rest here:http://www.theunchoice.com/articles/darlenecoercedstory.htm