Abortion Counseling Without Judgement

After the assassination of Dr. Tiller on May 31, abortion has of course been a major topic in the news and the blogosphere. As I’ve followed the reignited debate, I’ve noticed that often in the discussion ideology completely obscures acknowledgment of the way abortion is a very concrete part of many women’s reproductive lives.

According to the latest data available from the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts reproductive health research, about 1.2 million abortions were performed in the US in 2005. As the statistics show, many women choose to have abortions, and because of the cultural debate surrounding it, those women may have a hard time discussing their feelings about the experience.

Luckily, there’s Exhale, a free national after-abortion counseling hotline. It was founded in 2000 by a group of women who wanted to “provide an alternative to politically motivated counseling agencies and create awareness that abortion, and having feelings afterward, is normal in the reproductive lives of women and girls.”

The hotline is staffed by trained volunteers ready to offer nonjudgmental support. Counseling is available seven days a week, and Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Tagalog-speaking counselors are available upon request. For more information, visit their website.