By Dave Andrusko

The conversation continues over the motivations, agenda, and “message” of “No Easy Decision,” MTV’s documentary/in-studio discussion of Markai Durham’s abortion. The latest twist is a piece appearing in today’s New York Times.

In “Post-Abortion Counseling Group Finds Itself on the Firing Line,” by Shoshana Walter, we read the assurance by “Exhale,” a nonprofit organization based in Oakland that offers post-abortion counseling, that it is “neutral”—neither pro-life nor “pro-choice.” While that is absurd—Exhale’s pro-abortion tilt is unmistakable-- reading the Times piece (more specifically it comes from “The Bay Citizen,” described as “a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times”) is useful in two ways.

First, it provides an interesting insight into how a pro-abortion post-abortion organization zealously protects an image that bears little relationship to what it actually does. (In the story we discover, among other things, that Exhale was “an adviser to the program’s producer.”)

Second, the story gives me another opportunity to think about the larger message of the MTV special and the “reasoning” that culminated in the decision of Markai and her boyfriend, James, to abort their six-week-old unborn baby.

As I wrote on December 29, the day after “No Easy Decision” ran, the special was a spinoff of the network's “16 and pregnant” which had never before explored the reasoning that culminated in an abortion. This episode was especially powerful because the MTV audience was familiar with Markai and James, who were featured in the second season of “16 and pregnant.” They already have one child--Za'karia--and Markai had become pregnant less than a year after Za'karia's birth.

As mentioned, Exhale’s role was as “an adviser to the program’s producer.” But the leaders protest their non-political innocence—if they are anything, they are “pro-voice.”

This is strange indeed because as an online community Exhale is unmistakably dedicated both to sharing stories of women’s decisions to abort and to validating them. Indeed, as Walter points out, Exhale describes abortion as a “normal part of reproductive life.”

Further evidence comes from a pro-life blogger quoted in the story. Jill Stanek pointed to Exhale’s creation of “16 & Loved” as evidence that it is “a group that [is] decidedly pro-abortion.”

The site “features testimonials from readers describing their abortion experiences and letters of support for three women who appeared on ‘No Easy Decision,’” Walter writes. “A panel of prominent abortion rights writers led a live online chat.”

“Pro-voice”? Pro-one-voice.

Which takes us back to the program. I think it’s unfair to say it “glorified” abortion or made Markai’s decision seem casual. “No Easy Decision,” in my opinion, showed two very immature young adults (especially James) who were convinced the choice was not between birth and abortion (although obviously it was), but between the “sacrifices” Za'karia would have to make and the chance for a “better life” (better than theirs) that she would have if she remained the only child.

What made the program so powerful for me was to see how Markai was able to overcome all the evidence, found in a number of comments in the documentary, that she knew she was sacrificing a real baby, not some “thing.” (See “At Least Not Anyone With a Heart” at www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Dec10/nv122910.html)

Dr. Drew Pinsky hosted the MTV special. Right out of the box Pinsky set the tone by telling the audience that two years after their abortion most women feel like they’ve made "the right decision."

When asked how she feels, Markai responds, "I have mixed emotions”--that she is still confused, a response that was followed by a sniff. But Pinsky will not allow her to deviate from his script. He waves her ambivalence aside: "I know it feels confused but that's normal.”

Everything about the way he handles the in-studio interviews with Markai and two other women who had aborted was intended to send one message: whatever confusion, doubt, remorse, or guilt they felt was ”normal” but would pass. That is why the program ends with Pinsky referring women to Exhale where other women will reaffirm the correctness of their decision to abort.

Final thought. When talking with her friend Chambray, Markai remarked that another close friend had asked about adoption. Markai instantly adds that this is "not an option" for her. "If I feel that baby kick inside of me," Markai says, "…I'm in love with this baby already and this baby's doing nothing but making me sick."

Perhaps the best indication of how she felt, beyond the tears and the assurances that this was done for Za'karia is what she told James the day after the abortion. "I think God wouldn't give me something I couldn't handle.