I saw this at several blogs, including Sister Toldjah, and at first I thought it had to be a joke.  It isn’t.

We now have, in our culture of uber-sensitivity, abortion sympathy cards:

Do you know someone who’s had an abortion?

Are you having trouble knowing what to say?

Do you want to let them know you care?

Send them an e-card.

Remember, each person’s experience with abortion is unique. These e-cards were created to address the range of experiences people can have with abortion. As you consider which e-card to send, think about the person you are sending it to. What do they need to know? What are they feeling? What message will provide the most comfort?

The group bills itself as an “After Abortion Resource” center.

Exhale was created by and for women who have abortions.  The founders of Exhale — Aspen Baker, Susan Criscione, Carolina De Robertis, Anna Goldstein and Laura Perez — gathered together for the first time, on the floor of a Berkeley apartment, in June 2000. These five women came together because they, or someone they knew, had personally experienced the lack of non-judgmental services available for women and their significant others after an abortion. 

I won’t deny that there is a need for after abortion resources, and no I do not mean prosecution for murder.  But being fairly pro life, I have to say the degree of sympathy is, IMHO misplaced.

Examples:

ST had this to say about this one:

Your “loss”? How can an abortion be considered a ‘loss’ when the aborted baby isn’t even considered a growing life in the first place and is instead looked upon as a “parasite” or “blob of tissue”? And furthermore, it’s not a “loss” if you choose to abort it.

Sure. If it is not a life, it is not a loss, right?  It is a choice.

Peace…I dunno, they seems so wishy washy.  Maybe being a guy this is not something I am equipped to understand.  But I personally see too many abortions being used to remove a problem that resulted from irresponsible behavior, and to me it is a clear act of avoiding responsibility. 

They preach about choice, but there were many other choices that lead to the pregnancy.  Yes yes, I know, what about rape?  The statistics indicate that rape related pregnancies are rare (estimates range from 1-5%), which would therefore indicate that the need for a rape related abortion is probable less likely, which would in turn suggest that the abortions as a result of consensual sex are more likely.   But I don’t have any stats to back that up, just observations.

Regardless, a significant portion of those abortions resulting from consensual sex are convenience oriented, as opposed to having life threatening reasons. 

ST continues her thoughts with this:

In all seriousness, I’m not knocking the fact that women need emotional support after an abortion - in fact, that’s precisely my point: that women are emotionally scarred by having an abortion because they know what they’ve done is wrong. Back on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I wrote this:

There are conflicting studies out there which show on one hand that ‘most’ women who have abortions are not emotionally scarred by it and feel relieved once it’s done, while others show that having an abortion scars a woman for life, some more so than others. The truth is somewhere in between, but make no mistake about it, the decision to have an abortion is not one that most women make in a snap. They think about it and agonize over it, and there’s a reason they agonize over it: because deep inside, they know it’s wrong. Last October, I blogged about a hospital in the UK that was discovered to have thrown aborted babies into the same incinerator they used to get rid of trash, which outraged not only pro-life groups, but some of the women who had abortions there, who thought it was a horrible way for their baby to be dispensed with, which tells you about how torn women who have abortions are between doing what’s right (keeping the child) versus doing what is convenient (aborting them) and the guilt which eats at them later. Women are reassured prior to the abortion that their unborn child will be buried or dispensed of ‘with dignity’ but why worry about the dignity of the child when you didn’t want it to begin with? If you’ve made the choice to abort your child, you have little room to complain when you find out how it’s been disposed of, but all the same the thought that women could be horrified to find out something like that happened to their unborn baby after they aborted it shows that they know deep down that what they did was wrong to begin with.

If women who had abortions really believed that what was in their wombs was nothing more than a “parasite” or “blob of tissue” they simply wouldn’t feel the level of guilt that they do over aborting it. They also wouldn’t balk at the idea of the “contents” of their womb being dispensed with in an incinerator. So that begs the question: if you know it’s wrong …

… then why do it?

Also, how about a lot more counseling WHILE considering abortion, rather than wait til it’s too late to turn back?

Indeed.  But I’m a guy, what do I know?

Hot Air offers an alternate card, as do John Hawkins and Bob Owens (below).