Killing aborted babies • Curse of Abortion Act • Is abortion murder? • Book review

What is going on in Christian Crisis Pregnancy Counselling?

By Dr ES Williams

 CARE is passionate about abortion.  So passionate that they have a network of Christian Crisis Pregnancy Centres scattered around the UK.  According to CARE’s Chairman, Lyndon Bowring, ‘We believe that we have a responsibility as Christians to be a voice for the voiceless, because they are defenceless, and because God alone gave them life.  Our 162 Centres, committed to helping women facing pregnancy crises, continually seek to offer understanding and support – and at the same time underlining our belief that all human beings are made in the image of God, and are of supreme value.’[i]

 CARE Centres Network is an organisation that claims to be concerned about the welfare of women in relation to pregnancy, including abortion.  The centres provide a free pregnancy test, confidential counselling and post-abortion counselling.  Women with a positive test are promised that a trained advisor will ‘listen to you, give you all the information you need, help you find out what you want to do’.[ii]  

 To understand what is happening in CARE counselling centres, I have compared the counselling messages of CARE with that of prominent pro-choice organisations, such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Marie Stopes International and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.  What I found was astounding, for there was no difference in substance between the pro-choice, non-judgemental options counselling of BPAS and the pro-choice, non-judgemental, options counselling of CARE.  In my book What is going on in Christian Crisis Pregnancy Counselling? I reach the following conclusion:

 ‘The above analysis, which compared CARE with BPAS, shows that the advice provided by CARE’s network of pregnancy counselling centres exhibits all the essential characteristics of pro-choice dogma.  Like pro-choice, CARE’s counselling promises a pregnant woman to help her find out what she wants to do about her pregnancy. Like pro-choice, CARE’s counselling offers a woman three options, including abortion. Like pro-choice, CARE’s counselling is impartial, non-judgemental and non-directive. Like pro-choice, CARE’s counselling encourages a woman to examine her feelings.  A pregnant woman is advised to “think about your feelings and values before coming to a decision”.  CARE’s leaflet, Making a Decision, uses the words feel or feelings over twenty times. Like pro-choice, CARE’s counselling helps a woman clarify her personal values. Like pro-choice counsellors, CARE’s counsellors invite a woman to make an “informed” choice between the options that have been set before her.  Like pro-choice counsellors, CARE’s counsellors persuade a woman that the most important thing is that she feels able to live with her choice. Is there, in reality, any difference between the non-directive, non-judgemental options-based counselling of CARE and the pro-choice, non-directive, non-judgemental options-based counselling of BPAS, Planned Parenthood, Pro-choice Connection, National Abortion Federation and Marie Stopes?

 Many supporters of CARE will be dismayed at the thought that it is being bracketed together with pro-choice abortion organisations.  There is something profoundly wrong here.  Either CARE’s position is being misrepresented or it has departed from the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints and is promoting, or at least condoning, abortion in the name of the Christian Church.  This is a serious accusation that demands an answer.  To consider the question of whether CARE has departed from the biblical faith, we need to examine the theological justification for its pregnancy counselling.  We need to understand the theology that lies behind CARE’s ministry of non-judgemental, options counselling.’ 

 For those who wish to understand what is really happening in Christian abortion counselling, and for those who support CARE, What is going on in Christian Crisis Pregnancy Counselling? is essential reading.