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California Think Tank Guide Encourages Docs To Tell Women Getting Abortions They’re Being ‘Responsible’

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Grace Carr Reporter
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A California think-tank published a guide encouraging doctors to sway pregnant women on the fence about aborting that having an abortion is the “responsible” thing to do.

In its “Early Abortion Training Guide,” the UCSF Bixby Center “advances reproductive health policy and practice worldwide through research, training and advocacy,” according to its website. The Bixby Center offers 30 fellowships each year to students at universities across the U.S.

The training guide advertises itself as an “all-inclusive interactive curriculum with tools to train new reproductive health providers to competence.” The guide goes through the steps of the abortive process depending on the stages of pregnancy, advising doctors how to execute both medication abortions and vacuum aspiration abortions, which are performed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Vacuum or suction abortions suck the baby out limb by limb “until signs that it [uterus] is empty,” according to the guide. (RELATED: Minnesota Students Launch Petition For University To Reinstate Abortion Fellowship)

The guide also encourages doctors to tell women who are aborting their babies — especially women who have come into the clinic unsure about whether or not to abort — they are being responsible and choosing the best option by having an abortion: “You are a responsible person and may be making the most responsible decision by not continuing with the pregnancy.” The guide also advises doctors to say, “You are making this decision because you care about your future and everyone involved.”

If the patient asks about what clinicians do with the baby after the abortion, doctors are advised to divert the question by asking, “Can you tell me a little more about what is concerning you?” Doctors can also say, “I examine the pregnancy tissue to make sure that you are no longer pregnant.” “The word ‘baby’ may cause the provider to assume that the patient is feeling guilt,” the training guide also notes. (RELATED: Planned Parenthood Cancels Appointments Left And Right After Supreme Court Ruling)

Transgender care is also important given “gender diverse people may experience intended or unintended pregnancy and may desire prenatal care,” the guide states.

“While the center claims to support comprehensive healthcare and dignity of the person, they largely ignore actual prenatal care,” Students For Life spokesman Matt Lamb said, according to Campus Reform. “We often hear from the abortion industry that they are not pro-abortion; they are just for options. Yet, they continue to place an emphasis on more and more abortions.”

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