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By Aimee Pendell
Choices — we love 'em and hate 'em. They're great when we're shopping for a pair of shoes or trying to decide what to have for lunch, but when it comes to the choices our society has embraced, we wish there weren't so many.
The "choice" for abortion has been around for nearly thirty years, and with the advent of "emergency contraception" and RU-486, women now have new choices. But we have choices too. And whether or not we understand those choices will determine how effective and relevant our ministries will be in the future.
The desire to reach abortion-vulnerable women and provide alternatives was the reason pregnancy centers were started in the first place. Typical services included pregnancy testing, counseling, and support services. As our movement grew, we added things like abstinence presentations, post-abortion support, and even ultrasound. Our initial services were based on two assumptions: that a pregnancy test was a compelling reason for women to come to our centers and that if they chose to end their pregnancies, women had to undergo an invasive surgical procedure.
As you know, change has come! For just seven dollars a woman can buy an accurate pregnancy test kit, which she can use in the privacy of her own home. Self-administered tests have become commonplace. In fact, sales of home pregnancy tests have increased 10% annually since 1991.
Another change since the early days has come from the advent of chemical abortion. Chemical abortion comes in two forms: emergency contraception and the RU-486 pill. Emergency contraception is sold under the brand names "Plan B" and "Preven." This type of pill is also known as the "morning-after pill" and is 70% effective when taken within seventy-two hours after conception. It comes with a pregnancy test, which the woman must take to ensure she is not pregnant from a previous occurrence of intercourse.
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RU-486 is
advertised
in the yellow
pages as
"abortion-by-pill"
and can be
taken up to
seven weeks after
conception. |
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Pro-choice activists advocate that emergency contraception be available over the counter so that women can stock the pills in their medicine cabinets to have whenever they need them. In fact, the pills are already available without prescription in California, Washington, and Great Britain. Women can also call a telephone number, and a clinician will write them a prescription and fax it to a local pharmacy. Legislation was introduced in Congress in March that would allocate $10 million toward an emergency contraception public awareness campaign. Those who introduced the bill said that their request is only a fraction of the $135 million President Bush requested to fund abstinence-only education programs in 2003.
The RU-486 pill is different from emergency contraception pills because a woman takes it after she has missed her period. RU-486 is advertised in the yellow pages as "abortion-by-pill" and can be taken up to seven weeks after conception. The FDA approved RU-486 in September 2000, and the rules for its use are much less restrictive than anyone anticipated. Virtually any family doctor or OB/GYN doctor can prescribe it, provided he has some surgical backup arrangement in case the pill doesn't work or in case there are side effects. Mass advertising started in the last half of 2001 with a $2 million campaign initiated by the National Abortion Federation. The ads appearing in Self and People magazines very seductively stated: "You have the freedom to choose, and now you have another safe abortion choice. The early-option pill has been approved by the FDA." Any woman who didn't know better would think it was a great choice.
What do these changes mean for our society? What can we expect to see in the future in five, ten, even fifteen years? I believe we will see three trends:
1. Fewer unplanned pregnancies. If a woman takes a pill that gets rid of anything that happened the night before, technically she was never pregnant.
2. Fewer abortions. Chemical abortions won't be counted in the statistics, so the abortion decline we've seen in the past years will continue, but the statistics won't tell the real story.
3. Sky-high STD rates. If women can take a pill to get "un-pregnant," they'll be less concerned about the risk of pregnancy and less likely to use barrier protection. While we know condoms aren't the answer, they do provide some defense against STDs, and the use of that minimal protection will decrease even further.
So, that's society, but what about us? How will this impact our ministries and our efforts to serve abortion-minded women?
1. We will see fewer abortion-minded women. If they can take a pill the morning after, their decision-making process happens quickly and would preclude the need for crisis pregnancy services.
2. It will trigger our need to use different counseling methods. With so many women affected by STDs and using chemical abortions, the need to be more professional is a necessity. Also, what will happen to our post-abortion counseling when women no longer remember the sound of a machine or may not even think the pills they took constituted an abortion?
3. There may be less of a perceived need for our ministry among donors or the church. Christians are battle-weary when it comes to the pro-life issue. They will be happy to see abortion statistics decline, and they may not know that the statistics are misleading. With so many worthwhile ministries to support, pregnancy centers may not rank very high on the list.
Perhaps you have responded to the information in this article with disbelief or despair. Let me encourage you! Our Lord is not surprised by these developments, nor is He helpless. His wisdom is available to us, His children. We must pray for Him to help us adapt to change and to establish new niches so we can continue to reach people for Him.
How do we do this? It will vary for every center. At First Choice our mission statement says that our first priority is to share the love, grace, and truth of Jesus Christ, so we considered how we could stay relevant to do that. We chose to change our name to enhance our appeal to abortion-vulnerable women. We established an active presence on the Internet. We also expanded our abstinence program and ultrasound ministry and set up STD testing at our centers.
Not all pregnancy help centers will be prepared for what the future brings. On two occasions, I mentioned these trends to colleagues. They looked at me as if I had lost my mind. Their response was: "Well, I guess what you're saying is true, but we don't have to worry, the Lord will bring in the clients." Of course, the Lord will bring them in—each of our clients is a divine appointment! But if we need do nothing to bring in clients, why do we advertise? Why do we have our walks and banquets? Yes, the Lord is our ultimate Provider, but He has given us gifts and abilities that He expects us to use.
"The Lord will bring them in" is really no answer. Effective ministry will slip from our grasp if we ignore the changes around us. Work now with your team to think clearly and seek the best way to remain relevant in this "age of abortion-by-pill." God will guide you.
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Aimee Pendell is Executive Director of First Choice Women's Resource Centers in Morristown, Montclair, and Jersey City, New Jersey. Contact her at Aimee@1stChoice.org. |
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