“It’s a Shame” Politicians Won’t Even Discuss Abortion Counselling Says Actress Jennifer O’Neill

OTTAWA, June 2, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Renowned actress and ‘Cover   Girl’ Jennifer O’Neill, who starred in “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud”, with Michael Sarrazin, and the David Cronenberg blockbuster “Scanners,” spoke with LifeSiteNews.com today about the political furor over abortion counselling. “It’s a shame,” said O’Neill, referring to the intolerance of various Canadian politicians to offering women factual information prior to abortions.  O’Neill, who for 30 years was the ‘face’ of Cover Girl Cosmetics, told LifeSiteNews.com that her own painful experience with abortion testifies to the need for informed consent on the procedure. “I was not informed, had an abortion in early 70’s,” said O’Neill.  “I didn’t want it but was pressured by the father and told by my own very good doctor that it was a blob of tissue not a baby.”  The actress told LifeSiteNews.com she suffered depression and nine miscarriages after the abortion.  “With ultrasound we know it’s a baby,” said O’Neill, stressing that “if a woman or couple are to make a decision on abortion they deserve to know; it’s a women’s health issue that she be informed about what she’s getting herself into.”  As the spokesperson for the National Silent No More Awareness Campaign, O’Neill has come into contact with tens of thousands of women who have suffered from abortion and are now telling their stories.  From her own experience and those of countless other women she has spoken to she details the devastating psychological, physical, emotional and spiritual effects of abortion.  O’Neill mentioned some of the consequences of abortion she has suffered or women have shared with her including depression, (suffered by 45% of women who abort) miscarriages and other infertility issues, drug and alcohol abuse, which she relates is ‘pervasive’, denial, and breast cancer.  “Anyone who is afraid of information worries me,” O’Neill told LifeSiteNews.com.  “Parents sending off their daughters for abortions thinking that they need an education instead of a baby have to know what they are sentencing their children to.”  O’Neill said that “not all individuals regret their abortions but tens of thousands do regret their abortions, at least before that happens they should be informed.”