D.C. Abortion ‘Spa’ Mainstreams Abortion in New Ad
If you make your living off killing, it’s helpful to pretend any “stigma” attached to your profession is old-fashioned and hopelessly behind the times.
That’s what a media-hyped abortion “spa” in Washington, D.C. is trying to do with the release of a video ad. In 30 seconds, the ad shows three women from the 60s gossiping over tea about a friend who left because of “appendicitis” or for a trip “to the countryside” – that is until a modern woman on her cell phone interrupts, “You guys are talking about abortion.”
The ad ends with the young woman repeating the clinic’s slogan: “Because there’s no shame in it. Abortion. Yeah, we do that.” Infanticide: say it loud, sisters!
Carafem, centered in Washington, D.C., delivers “convenient and professional abortion care and family planning” in order for women to “control the number and spacing of their children.”
To do that, the business offers the “abortion pill” (Mifepristone and Misoprostol) to women in their first 10 weeks of pregnancy. For $400, Carafem will abort a baby – or, in its own words, prescribe a pill that makes “the pregnancy stop growing” and causes “the expulsion of the embryo.”
And stop a beating heart.
Don’t have the $400? Carafem asks for donations in order to “provide financial assistance to women in need.”
In its blog, Carafem addresses other concerns, like the “ten most common myths about abortion,” beginning with “abortion is killing a baby.”
“[L]et’s focus on scientific facts,” the explanation read. “[T]he basic gist is this: during the first and second trimesters (when most abortions are performed), the fetus is not viable, meaning it could not survive on its own without being attached to the mother.”
As opposed to all those independent three-day olds working and living in their own apartments?
Carafem’s site also provides a special section that targets pregnant teens with “questions to think about” like “Do you want to have a baby? Is this the right time to be responsible for a child?”
If the new D.C. clinic’s business starts booming, it’s in no small thanks to the help from the media.
Breaking the story, The Washington Post’s Sandhya Somashekhar wrote how Carafem “aims to feel more like a spa than a medical clinic” with “wood floors and a natural wood tone” as well as “warm teas, comfortable robes and a matter-of-fact attitude.”
Carafem, she said, signified a “new push to de-stigmatize the nation’s most controversial medical procedure by talking about it openly and unapologetically.”
Other media like Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams advertised, “Yes, women deserve ‘spa-like’ abortion providers” while Slate’s Amanda Marcotte similarly wrote, “Abortion Patients Deserve ‘Spa-Like’ Conditions.” (Hey, they weren’t reading from the same press release, were they? Nah.)
For Reason, Elizabeth Nolan Brown argued, “[I]f abortion in general does digust [sic] you—well, it really doesn't matter if the waiting-room seats are plush or not, does it? Unless, of course, punishing women for their choices in as many ways as possible is also part of your agenda.”
Before the video, Carafem bombarded D.C. metro riders
with their slogan:
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter.
