Seeing is Believing

Women reject abortion when ultrasound provides a window to the womb.

A Project Reach Feature Report 

When a woman sees the developing child within her womb, she is less likely to seek an abortion. This has been the consistent report from pregnancy centers throughout the nation that employ ultrasound technology to assist women in their decision about abortion.

A new detailed study by A Woman's Concern pregnancy counseling centers in the Boston area confirms these informal reports and provides dramatic evidence of the power of ultrasound. More than 63 percent of women in the study who were considering abortion chose to bring their pregnancies to full term after getting a view inside their wombs. Before the Boston-area centers employed ultrasound, the study shows, only 33.7 percent of abortion-bound clients chose to deliver their babies.

The numbers need to be repeated. Before the centers used ultrasound technology, 61 percent of women coming for counseling and saying they wanted to abort chose to do so, and 33.7 percent eventually chose to give birth. With the help of ultrasound, the numbers were virtually reversed: 24.5 percent chose abortion, while 63.5 percent brought their pregnancies to term. In addition, the study showed that the more developed the fetus was at the time ultrasound was performed, the more likely it was for women to keep their babies. In the group of women who received ultrasound after nine weeks of pregnancy, 83.8 percent changed their mind about abortion and chose to deliver.

PRE-BIRTH BONDING

A powerful dynamic lies behind the numbers. The study goes to the heart of what abortion advocates call a woman’s right to choose. Ultrasound gives women a clearer view of what they are choosing in abortion, and who is affected by that choice. As the authors of the study observe, “Some women clearly seem to be significantly influenced by the direct visualization of the ultrasound examinations prior to considering abortion.”

This conclusion is backed up by the response last year to a Time magazine cover story that showed a developing child inside the womb from the earliest stages of life. The photos showed graphically that unborn children are more than the ‘clump of cells’ abortion supporters call them. The positive reaction to the photos of people around the world shows a growing awareness of the humanity of the child in the womb.

Another important finding of the Boston-area study was that 12 percent of clients were not candidates for abortion. Either the women were not pregnant or had a non-viable fetus that had died in the womb or would soon do so. The study authors comment: “This finding suggests that ultrasound should be quite useful in preventing unnecessary therapeutic interventions in women seeking abortion for unplanned pregnancy.” In other words, some women undergo abortions even when they are not pregnant, or when their unborn child has miscarried.

The study also indicates that pregnant women develop a powerful bond with their unborn babies once they see the little ones in the womb. Women in the study who said they were considering abortion became concerned about the health of the one in their wombs. ‘Do you think my baby is OK?’ they would ask the ultrasound technician. 

The study was conducted by A Woman’s Concern, which runs five pregnancy counseling centers in and around Boston, three of which have ultrasound equipment. Dr. Eric J. Keroack, a gynecologist who is the full-time medical director for the centers, gathered the figures for the study and confirmed their accuracy. He performs or oversees all ultrasound procedures and counseling to ensure that they are professionally conducted and reviewed.

Dr. Keroack describes himself not so much as ‘pro-life’ as ‘pro-woman.’ As a doctor, he says, he thinks it is wrong that such a common procedure as abortion can be performed so regularly without women having access to ultrasound, a simple and safe diagnostic procedure. At the very least, he says, ultrasound could find the relatively high numbers of women who seek abortion and yet are not pregnant, or are carrying a non-viable fetus (12 percent of women in his study). “I am certain this study has more relevance to the medical community at large than to pro-lifers,’ Dr. Keroack said. ‘Women without access to ultrasound are undergoing unnecessary (abortion) procedures and living with unnecessary complications, guilt and scars.’

METHODS OF THE STUDY

The study compares two 18-month periods, the first before the centers employed ultrasound for its clients, and the second after ultrasound technology was set up. The stunning numbers need to be studied not only by pro-life advocates and medical personnel who seek to help both the pregnant mother and her unborn child, but also by ‘pro-choice’ advocates and abortion providers who claim to be acting in the best interest of women.

The study concludes: ‘All woman deserve the right to know exactly what their condition is in order to consider all of the potential therapeutic possibilities of their diagnosis … This ability to decide one’s direction in an unplanned pregnancy is the foundational theory of the “pro-choice” supporters. Allowing a patient to view her ultrasound examinations implies respect for the dignity and autonomy of a patient, and her ability to participate wisely in her own plan of care.’  

Dr. Keroack asks how the medical community can ‘justify the present situations that prevent women from utilizing this simple and safe technology and still claim to provide informed consent?’

John Ensor, director of A Woman’s Concern, adds: ‘Even those who support the legal right to abortion ought to agree that women should not be ill-informed and under-educated, and so undergo an expensive, painful, humiliating procedure when it is not medically indicated. Yet currently abortion facilities are encouraging abortion surgery at 6-8 weeks knowing full well that perhaps 20 percent of patients will miscarry at 9-10 weeks. This is a tremendous disservice to the health and well-being of women.’

Informed (Or Misinformed) Consent

Indeed, the use of ultrasound cuts to the heart of the issue of informed consent. It is a basic practice in the medical profession that seeks to provide patients with the most accurate information available before they undergo even the most routine procedure. Yet the study by A Women’s Concern raises grave questions about the information women are given by abortion providers before they undergo an abortion. Not only do most abortion providers not provide women with a view inside the womb through advanced ultrasound technology, many influential abortion advocates criticize pro-life pregnancy centers for using ultrasound as a regular part of their counseling procedures.

Last year powerful groups such as the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood lobbied for New York State’s Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to investigate pro-life centers on the charge that they used aggressive tactics (including ultrasound) to turn women away from abortion. After the pregnancy centers asserted their rights, and explained their procedures, Spitzer back down, but not before the pro-abortion forces exposed their own tactics of intimidation.

The reason these groups fear the use of ultrasound technology by pregnancy centers was made clear by the medical director of an abortion clinic on Long Island who was quoted last year in the New York Times about ultrasound sonograms: ‘The bottom line is no woman is going to want to get an abortion after she sees a sonogram.’

The implication here is that the abortion industry is out for money, not for the health or welfare of women. As Dr. Keroack states in the study, “While much has been suggested about the “tactics” of pro-life oriented crisis pregnancy centers and their attempt to “pressure” women into continuing pregnancies, very little has been explored concerning the “tactics” of family planning that financially benefit from their clients’ decisions.’

The battle against abortion may one day be won not by loud protests but by the silent power of ultrasound, as more and more women and Americans across our land see the humanity, individuality and beauty of the child in the womb.