Abortion Counseling by Supportive Female Staff

ABORTION COUNSELING – GROUP or PRIVATE

We are pioneers in the field of Abortion Counseling and take pride in our early recognition of the vital role that good counseling plays in emotional and physical recovery of abortion patients.

Counseling is a discussion of the feelings and concerns expressed by you, our patient, which may include help with decision making and contraceptive choices, values clarification, and medical education about the medical and surgical procedure.

Female counselors, trained in women’s health and crisis intervention will answer all questions and discuss any personal issues determining a patient’s decision. Parental or spousal consent is never required. You are assured that your privacy is completely guarded and the physicians and their assistants maintain strict and total confidentiality.

During the counseling session, we will tell you all about the risks, benefits and possible complications of abortion. We make sure that you understand your decision, that your decision is uncoerced; and that you are prepared to have an abortion.

We also try to dissolve many of the myths surrounding abortion, including many falsified descriptions of emotional turpitude after an abortion, such as “post-abortion syndrome”.

We tell you about the particular clinical procedure, about what you should do after the procedure, and during the recovery period.

We believe in using anesthesia, analgesia or anxiolysis to provide comfort during the abortion procedure for any patient in which the benefits outweigh the risks. We also recognize that each patient’s comfort and reduced anxiety depend not only on pharmacologic measures, but are significantly affected by good counseling and by our supportive staff.

We focus on providing a safe, clean and gentle environment which will facilitate each patient’s ease both before during and after the clinical procedure.

INFORMED CONSENT

As of March 2016, every state, including New York State, requires that a patient consent before undergoing medical treatment and that the consent be informed.  Informed consent means: a patient must have the capacity to decide about her own care; her decision must be voluntary; a patient must receive adequate and appropriate information.

The Guttmacher Institute does a wonderful job of outlining how different states dictate “adequate and appropriate information”. 

Some states attempt to bias the counseling so as to promote and anti-abortion agenda. New York does not. Here in the Bronx we are are not required to include inaccurate information about the non-existent link between abortion and cancer, abortion and fertility, or the statistically unverifiable risk of post-abortion emotional trauma.

 

BIRTH CONTROL

During our counseling sessions, we do encourage you to think about birth control.

Our female counselors can discuss birth control with you in a relaxed and comfortable setting. New York is one of the 19 states that seeks to enact expanded insurance coverage for contraceptive care. You will be given up to date information about extended insurance coverage for over the counter and in-clinic contraceptive methods.

You will be given up to date information regarding all of the different birth control methods:

  • condoms,
  • birth control pills
  • patches,
  • IUD,
  • diaphragms,
  • vaginal contraceptive rings,
  • Norplant,
  • Depo-Provera shots.

We also provide information about permanent birth control: tubal ligation, non-operative Essureare — if you no longer want the risk of child bearing.