Pro-Life Advocates Blast "Dear Abby" for Advising Abortion

LifeNews.com ^ | November 25, 2003 | Maria Gallagher

[nickcarraway]

Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- "Dear Abby" is giving some bad advice, according to people who oppose legalized abortion.

In a column earlier this year, "Abby" recommended that a young pregnant woman who professed to being "Alone and Terrified" report to Planned Parenthood for counseling. Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion operation.

A number of readers questioned the wisdom of Abby's advice. This week, she devoted an entire column to pro-life objections to her advice.

For instance, someone identified as "Appalled in Florida" wrote: "I was shocked when I read your reply to ‘Alone and Terrified,’ the teenage girl from Columbus, Ga. She had just discovered she was pregnant and was afraid to tell her parents because she was scared of their reaction. You advised her to go to Planned Parenthood. Were you advising her to get an abortion?"

Abby responded, "No. That's a matter of personal choice." But she went onto say, " I knew that Planned Parenthood would advise her about her entire range of options." Obviously, say pro-lifers, Planned Parenthood's "range of options" includes abortion.

Another reader, Dana S. of Escondido, California, wrote, "Here in California a girl recently died because rather than going to her parents for help, she went to Planned Parenthood. Secrets should never be encouraged. Parents are the teen's best option."

Abby responded with a line that could have come straight from a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, "All medical procedures, and that includes abortion, carry some risk. According to reports I have read, the girl died of septic shock after taking RU-486. However, abortions are far safer today than they were 10 years ago -- and certainly safer than when the procedure was illegal and performed in back alleys."

The irony here, say pro-lifers, is that the pro-abortion lobby maintained that abortions were perfectly safe ten years ago. In fact, abortion is an inherently dangerous practice that is lethal for an unborn child and often threatens the health and safety of his mother.

Still another reader, Lenore in Manhattan, Montana, noted: "You should read ‘Grand Illusions,’ George Grant's expose of the racist roots of Planned Parenthood. Not to have advised that girl to visit her local Crisis Pregnancy Center was misleading."

Abby then launched a defense of Planned Parenthood's founder, saying, "Margaret Sanger, who founded the tiny birth control clinic that was to become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, became a family planning crusader because she felt it was vital for poor women (and that included women of color) to control their fertility and not be forced to have large families they couldn't take care of.

"A woman who is not in charge of her reproductive life is not in charge of her life. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the average woman, without birth control, would have between 12 and 15 pregnancies in her lifetime."

Pro-life activists note that, in her response, Abby is showing a blatant bias against large families. She also failed to address Sanger's bigoted statements against blacks, Italians, and others she deemed "unfit."

In her concluding remarks, Abby defended abortion-on-demand, using the rhetoric of the abortion industry, "Planned Parenthood's mission is to help women make the right choice for them. For some, that means carrying a pregnancy to term. For others, it means using birth control. And for still others it can mean having an abortion. It is a matter of personal freedom and deeply personal choice."

Abby did not include information sent to her by the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. The pro-life group noted that, in recommending that the young woman go to Planned Parenthood, Abby was greatly increasing the chances that the woman would have an abortion. According to Planned Parenthood's own statistics, the number of abortions at its centers far outnumber its adoption referrals.

The "Dear Abby" column is now written by Jeanne Phillips, daughter of Pauline Phillips, who wrote the columns for decades under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren."

Readers wishing to respond to Abby's pro-abortion columns can write to her at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

[nickcarraway]

I remember seeing this, and I think they are missing a big part. Planned Parenthood makes money from abortions, so obviously they are not impartial on the matter. They make money off every woman they ``counsel'' into having an abortion. If a teenager wrote to ``Dear Abby'' that she was deciding whether to smoke or not, would she send them to Phillip Morris for advice?

Plus, I believe I have read that PP's in the U.S. do not counsel adoption. Adoption groups should be taking this up with her.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

bump to the top

[Capriole]

Are we surprised? This is the same Dear Abby who yesterday ended her column by wishing her Muslim readers a happy Whatever-the-Hell-Holiday-It-Is-For-Muslims.

[firebrand]

Dear Abby and previously Ann Landers do us a great disservice. They are like the friendly counselor who tells us what we want to hear, never getting below the surface to what will really make us happy.

"Shop around." "Tell her off in no uncertain terms." "Stand up for yourself--learn to say no." "You are under no obligation to help such people." "Make your rules clear." It is to vomit.

[Houmatt]

Plus, I believe I have read that PP's in the U.S. do not counsel adoption.

You have read correctly. There is no money in adoption, so Planned Parenthood routinely does its best to steer a young, confused female to abort their unborn child, regardless of consequences to health.

The column in question also mentioned Margaret Sanger, the PP creator, but once again Sanger's overt racism and embrace of Eugenics was conveniently forgotten.

Abby is nothing but a liberal mouthpiece for leftist causes. If people are looking for advice, they should go to Dr. Joy Browne.

[Cicero]

I'd be extremely surprised if Planned Parenthood ever advised any minor who came to them what the options were.

Their money is from abortions and birth control. They would abort that young girl quick as a flash, never mention the alternatives, and sell her a packet of birth control pills on her way out the door. Then her parents would be left to wonder what was wrong with her and why she seemed so depressed and miserable.

[FormerLib]

This is not your mother's Dear Abby.

[Johnny Gage]

The real "abby" and now her daughter have always been "pro-choice" and "anti-gun" as long as I can remember.

This column by her is of no surprise to me.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Going to Planned Parenthood for pregnancy advice is like going to Kevorkian for hospice care.

Sanger didn't like Italians? The *****.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Dear Abby and the late Ann Landers are/were anti-gun too.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

IIRC, Abby and her sister Ann Landers are/were Jewish. As she is wishing the Muslims a Happy Ramadan they'll be slitting her throat.

[Dante3]

"Dear Abby" is dead. Someone else is writing her column. Doesn't this come under "truth in labeling laws"? And much of the advice is nonsense and/or boring.

I'm surprised The Washington Times carries this column. Surely there are better ones.

[MHGinTN]

"However, abortions are far safer today than they were 10 years ago -- and certainly safer than when the procedure was illegal and performed in back alleys." ... Well, 'Dear Abby' discounts the 42,000,000 individual lifetimes terminated on the altar of serial killing choice as insignificant. Not surprising that she also asserted the following bilge, playing switcheroo with contraception and serial killing in the unholy name of 'liberty' through killing the innocent: "A woman who is not in charge of her reproductive life is not in charge of her life. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the average woman, without birth control, would have between 12 and 15 pregnancies in her lifetime." [It is also interesting to note that the defenders of the indefensible play games with decades old quotes and half-century medical science posed as excuse for modern serial killing methodologies. Dear Abby is disgusting in the main, a product of her liberal leftist neighborhood.]

[baseballfanjm]

Her reactions are exactly the reactions from all feminists when presented with a better argument from a pro-lifer, and that is starting to spew their propaganda about "choice" and such, without ever answering the question.

It's what it would be like if you dialed 911 and got an automated response. "If you're house is burning down, dial 1; if you're house in being broken in to, dial 2; if you are having a medical crisis, please hold and wait for more options." You can't get through to them, since they're delusional.

Anyway, I'm one of six kids, and my mom is a lot more qualified for a job like this than "Dear Abbey". But my mom's honest, no-nonsense attitude would get her fired immediately.

[nickcarraway]

LOL

[ex-snook]

"However, abortions are far safer today than they were 10 years ago -- and certainly safer than when the procedure was illegal and performed in back alleys." ...

Not safer for the baby for sure.

[Paul Atreides]

Didn't she also refer to the Pope as a woman-hating Polack?

[Sloth]

"Planned Parenthood's mission is to help women make the right choice for them. For some, that means carrying a pregnancy to term. For others, it means using birth control. For others, it means drowning toddlers one by one in your bathtub. And for still others it can mean having an abortion. It is a matter of personal freedom and deeply personal choice."

[Sloth]

I'd be extremely surprised if Planned Parenthood ever advised any minor who came to them what the options were.

I wonder if an undercover sting/expose' has ever been attempted. I know it's been done by phone -- minors calling up claiming to have been raped, and extracting promises from PP to keep it hushed up.