There has been much ado lately about the label "pro-choice."  Planned Parenthood, and other organizations who accept and promote abortion, are nervously backing away from that label, and are encouraging people to stop using the label "pro-life" to describe people who promote alternatives to abortion.

 

 

"These labels limit the conversation," purrs the video's narrator.  "The next time you talk about abortion, don't let the labels box you in.  Have a different conversation, a conversation that doesn't divide you, but is based on mutual respect and empathy."

Don't mind if I do!  Here is a fine example of a supportive, respectful, empathetic doctor offering real choice to a pregnant woman in a difficult situation:

RU-486 abortions can be reversed midway: study

The article says that Rhonda, an 18-year-old college student, got pregnant by her boyfriend, Gary, despite using contraception. The last thing she wanted was a baby, and she argued with her parents until they finally gave in, and helped her get an abortion.  The girl chose a medical abortion, and took the first dose of the abortion drug mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist.

Her mother begged her to speak with a priest.  She resisted, but eventually consented.  The priest talked to her and put her in touch with one Dr. Delgado.

He performed an ultrasound to see if the baby was still alive.

“When Rhonda, her mother, and Gary saw the embryo in her uterus with a beating heart, they began to cry,” recounted Delgado. “These were tears of joy that the baby was still alive but also tears of remorse, for each of them, individually, regretted the decisions they had made.”

“They wanted to know what they could do to reverse the mifepristone,” wrote Delgado. “I explained to Rhonda the risks of the situation and offered her progesterone therapy since mifepristone functions as a progesterone antagonist. She agreed to proceed, hoping and praying for the best.”

The treatment worked.  Delgado continued to see Rhonda throughout the first trimester of her pregnancy. He described the “transformation” he saw in the family as they “recommitted to their faith” and developed a “beautiful love, joy and peace” about the pregnancy.

By the end of the first trimester, Delgado was able to refer Rhonda to an obstetrician.   At the time of his report, she was nearing the midpoint of her pregnancy.  Wrote Delgado, “[A]ll of her ultrasounds indicate that all is well with her baby and her. Rhonda feels blessed to have been given a second chance; a second chance she feels was by the grace of God.”

You see there?  That's choice.  Real choice -- even after a terrible choice has already been made.  And Delgado did more than "have a conversation" - - he changed the course of several lives.

The Planned Parenthood video above is right:  these labels can be so misleading!  After all, Planned Parenthood was still calling itself "pro-choice" when it performed 333,964 abortions in the fiscal year of 2011.  That's one abortion every 94 seconds -- 391 abortions for every adoption.  Abortion numbers were up, and their much-trumpeted "other services" were down.  They offer choice in the same way that McDonald's offers fresh fruits and veggies:  you have to look pretty damn hard to even find it on the menu.

While they were busy with all those abortions,  NaProTechnology doctors started looking around for a way to give women more actual choices.  In December 2012, they published a study in the the Journal of Pharmacotherapy.  According to LifeSiteNews:

Doctors George Delgado and Mary Davenport reported that six U.S. doctors trained in NaProTECHNOLOGY protocols at the Pope Paul VI Institute gave progesterone as an antidote to mifepristone to seven patients seeking to halt abortions already in progress.  Of the seven women, four carried healthy infants to term, two lost their babies, and one failed to follow up with the doctor, leaving the fate of her infant unknown.

“The 2-day gap between the ingestion of mifepristone and misoprostol in the typical abortion regimen potentially affords an opportunity to intervene and reverse the effects of the mifepristone,” wrote the study authors.

Reverse the effects of the mifepristone.  That's what we call "giving women another choice."  On Dr. Delgado's website, abortionpillreversal.com, it says:

Even if you are bleeding or cramping, you can still receive the progesterone once you have a sonogram to confirm the baby is alive and in the uterus.  

If you have taken the first dose of mifepristone and have changed your mind, call (877) 558 0333 for help.

In  other words, you may still have a choice.

Will Planned Parenthood pass this valuable, groundbreaking medical information along to its clients?  I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.  In the mean time, remember what the video says:  Labels are not always useful.  And organizations who want to be called "pro-choice" really ought to offer something else besides the same old choice over and over again, every 94 seconds, all year long.