Envisage Pregnancy Services
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Are you Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? These terms have become highly politicized, polarizing and confusing. At Envisage we believe that every person is valuable and loved by God, at every life stage and in every circumstance, from the time we are conceived and throughout all of our life. In that sense, we are “pro-life” and “whole-life”. However, we also realize that facing an unexpected pregnancy can be incredibly difficult, for many reasons. We recognize that abortion is a legal option in Canada. Unfortunately, some women with an unexpected pregnancy feel like they have no other choice but abortion. We don’t believe this is acceptable. Every woman deserves to understand all her options and also have access to alternatives to an unwanted abortion. Many people find it helpful to have a safe, confidential space to talk about their situation and feelings, without fear of being judged or told what to do. Our goal is to provide this safe place along with ongoing support through the provision of emotional support, accurate information and practical help.
Do you provide women with information about all pregnancy options? Envisage uses a client-lead, permission-based approach to sharing information. We have information about each option (abortion, adoption and parenting) available to clients. Any information we share about abortion is from Pregnancy Care Canada’s medically accurate and evidence-informed booklet “Abortion Adoption Parenting”. This resource has been reviewed by 45 specialized practitioners, including perinatal nurses, family physicians, obstetricians, gynaecologists, medical ethicists, psychologists, and social workers from across Canada. Although we provide information about abortion, Envisage does not make arrangements for abortion (we don’t keep a list of abortion providers for referral). We make every effort to ensure that clients understand this limitation of services before visiting or receiving services by posting in on our website and promotional materials, and also in our “Welcome Sheet” which is reviewed and signed by clients before receiving services.
Since you provide ongoing support, why don’t you help clients get an abortion? If a woman choses abortion, she is welcomed to continue accessing support at Envisage; We offer a safe place to process emotions after abortion. However, Envisage does not make arrangements for abortion or keep a referral list of providers. This is because being part of the abortion process through referral or assistance in accessing abortion would be incongruous with our deeply held belief that every person, at every life stage, is valuable and loved by God. Remaining outside the abortion/referral process also allows us to continue to be a safe place for women to work through any negative emotions they may experience after an abortion. If Envisage was part of the abortion process, we may no longer be viewed as that safe place for the healing and recovery journey. Although we make every effort to be clear about this limitation of services, and our desire is to be transparent about our beliefs, we also recognize that oversharing about our beliefs and limitations could be perceived as judgmental. For this reason, we have limited our explanation in promotional materials to only say “Envisage does not provide or make arrangements for abortion”.
Do you share your faith with your clients? As with all information that we share, Envisage follows a client-lead, permission-based approach. We make every effort to be transparent about the faith that motivates us, and to explain that we are always happy to share about that faith. We also make every effort to be clear that we serve people of all faith backgrounds and no faith background. We recognize that some people have been hurt by certain religious practices and we grieve deeply with them. Our love and care for people makes it easy for us to honour each person’s journey and perspective. There is never any pressure to talk about spiritual matters. For those who do express interest in knowing more about what we believe, we openly share and have programs available to help answer questions about God and the Bible.