There were 42 legal abortion deaths in 1972 and 1973

On legal abortion deaths:

“In 1972 there were 20 and in 1973, 22 deaths that were believed to be associated with legal abortion in the United States.”

US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 24, January 24, 1975

Cited in Sarah Spaght Brown “National Academy Of Sciences Report” in Warren Hern and Bonnie Andrikopoulos, eds. Abortion in the 70s: Proceedings of the Western Regional Conference on Abortion, Denver, Colorado, February 27 – 29, 1976 (New York: National Abortion Federation, 1977)

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Abortionist discusses possible complications, including “most embarrassing” – a baby that doesn’t die

Abortionist Jane Hodgson wrote about the instrument used to perform early abortions:

“The Karmann cannula is a soft, flexible cannula… However, it is not totally innocuous. I have known of perforations to occur with its use. Another disadvantage is the fact that with a small flexible cannula like this, it is very easy to slip over the implantation site. Continuing pregnancy may result. This is a most embarrassing complication. Also, there is a higher instance of retained tissue.”

Abortionist J Hodgson, MD “First Trimester Abortion” in Warren Hern and Bonnie Andrikopoulos, eds. Abortion in the 70s: Proceedings of the Western Regional Conference on Abortion, Denver, Colorado, February 27 – 29, 1976 (New York: National Abortion Federation, 1977) 21

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Woman says she was “never the same again” after her abortion

On the website AbortionChangesYou.com, a woman tells her story. She got pregnant from a man who was living with another woman. He claimed his relationship with the woman was over, but when she got pregnant, he refused to move out or to support her:

She writes:

“I remember being genuinely happy. I was the outgoing, silly girl who was always laughing. I remember smiling from the soul. I had no true sadness in my heart….

I also become extremely ill when I am pregnant with a rare condition called Hyperemesis Gravidarum. This basically means that I am throwing up and nauseous literally 24/7 during the entire nine months of pregnancy  … When I started feeling ill I became very scared. I felt my back up against the wall. I was responsible for all of my bills, a 2 year old active toddler and for the maintaining my apartment with zero help.  …

I would have panic attacks because I couldn’t stop throwing up but had no choice but to go work 12-14 hour shifts. … I had been throwing up for weeks. My throat was raw. My eyes were swollen from crying. I was extremely dehydrated. My feet hurt from working. My heart broken from not being the mother I knew I was capable of being. My spirit was weak…

I called my mom and cried my heart out. She told me that I need to have an abortion that it was the only way to give myself and my current child a chance. I told her I couldn’t possibly go through with that but she insisted that it was the only way that it was just a clump of cells and not even a formed baby yet. With no fight left in my tired soul, I conceded…

After, the procedure I was never the same again. I was put on the Nuva Ring and must have not been using it properly because a month later I was pregnant again. I felt as if I went through all of that emotional turmoil just to get pregnant again… I felt stupid and like it was for nothing. I didn’t even tell my mom this time. I just went in all alone and had an abortion all by myself…

I felt numb. I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I was lost. I spiraled out of control. What followed was the characteristics of a person I didn’t knew existed within myself. When I smiled, it felt forced. When I laughed it was insincere. I had multiple angry, violent outbursts where I would destroy things in my apartment just because I couldn’t bear consequences of my actions. I couldn’t remember how to be that happy go lucky and free young woman I used to pride myself on being. I cried constantly. All I could think about was how I caused harm and death upon my children. MY children. Those I should have gladly given my life to protect. It went against nature itself. I had suicidal thoughts and couldn’t bear the weight of the pain. …I pray to the heavens and to my two babies for forgiveness on a regular basis… Not a minute goes by where they are not in my heart and on my mind. … the pain still hasn’t subsided. I have a multitude of mental issues like crippling anxiety and depression. I feel a heaviness in my heart that won’t go away.”

 

 

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Woman obeys husband and has abortion, it affects the way she treats her kids

One woman told her abortion story:

“I was 22 years old and had a young son, my oldest son was four years old. My husband said that my sons were too young, so that I had to have an abortion. I obeyed, without thinking twice, because I was so in love. I felt insecure and I didn’t want him to leave me.

We were married, nothing was missing, and it was a really silly decision. He asked me to do it and I just did it….

My husband did not come with me, I went alone with my friend, I took a taxi afterwards and returned to my house, while my husband was at a party. My brain made the decision to block all that memory.

When I met the Christian pro-life association, Aesvida, and I began to hear about the consequences of an abortion, I realised that I had become an angry woman. You are not aware of where it comes from, but then I understood it.

I did not care for my other children, I did not like to hold their hands, I never gave them a hug. Now they are older, and I want to hug them, but they are used to their mom not touching them.

When I realised it, when everything came back to my mind, I started to get involved with pro-life activities, because I knew what I had done.”

“My husband said that I had to have an abortion. I just obeyed” Pregnancy Help News 30 June, 2020

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Abortion worker complains more post-abortive women don’t support abortion

Abortion worker Steph Herold expresses her frustration over how few of the women she who came to her clinic are active in the pro-choice movement:

“We need our patients, who we do everything for, to stand up for us. We don’t need them to tell their abortion stories to everyone they know, although of course, that would be great. We need them to fight for abortion access in whatever way makes sense to them. If one in three US women has an abortion by age 45, where are these women? Why don’t they stand up for us?”

Sarah Erdreich Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2013) 175

Could it be because women don’t find their abortions empowering and don’t want to advocate for abortion after they’ve been wounded by one?

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Abortion clinic owner can’t understand why former patients aren’t defending her clinic

Abortion facility owner Maggie Cage ran a full-page newspaper ad during Operation Rescue’s campaign. While pro-lifers staged sit-ins in front of the facility door, Cage called for her former patients to come and “defend” the facility. She couldn’t understand why they weren’t coming back to support the clinic:

“Where are you? Where are all the people we’ve helped over the years? We need you now. When you needed us, we were there. We held your hand and supported you. We see you in restaurants and at the grocery store, at PTA meetings and softball games. You are the businesspeople, the school officials, the politicians, the voters. We kept you safe. We held your secrets. But now we need help. Where are you?”

Quoted in Susan Wicklund This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor (New York: Public Affairs Perseus Books Group, 2007) 160

Could it be because these women didn’t feel so “helped” by their abortions?

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Pro-Choice abortion worker contemplates telling the public about former patients’ abortions to shame them if they are now pro-life

Pro-Choice former abortion worker Robin Dizard is so frustrated that some post-abortive women become pro-life that she contemplated “outing” her former patients.

“[I]t’s something that has been used very effectively in outing [of gay people], for example. I’m not in favor of it but look what it does. And look what happens when the hypocrites who are holding elected office get found out: “Oh, Senator whoever you are, your office is full of pornography, that’s very interesting,” and then the guy pipes down a little bit.”

David P Cline Creating Choice: A Community Responds to the Need for Abortion and Birth Control, 1961 – 1973 (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006) 207

This former abortion worker seems to think betraying the confidences of abortion patients who are pro-life will shame them into not opposing abortion. Fortunately, Hippa Privacy laws make this illegal.

It’s rather interesting that this pro-choice former abortion provider compares abortion to pornography.

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Abortion counselor surprised that attitudes haven’t changed on abortion

Jeannie Jones counseled women and helped them get abortions both before and after Roe. She says:

“I became convinced within a year or two of doing abortion counseling to great numbers at Amherst Medical that the whole thing – society’s condemnatory attitude toward abortion – was going to change so dramatically because there were all these women of all ages who had abortions and members of their families who knew about it. They had this experience of making this tough decision. I thought that was going to change the political landscape and I can’t believe [that opposition to legal abortion] is still going on. There’s this enormous number of women having abortions still, but it’s like you had one and you don’t have any sympathy or concern for anyone else. Where is this enormous population of people who personally had this experience? Where are their families?”

It seems that society views abortion as a bad thing despite the fact that so many women have had abortions. Perhaps this means having an abortion is not an empowering experience, but a painful one- most women who have them aren’t celebrating their abortions or talking about them.

David P Cline Creating Choice: A Community Responds to the Need for Abortion and Birth Control, 1961 – 1973 (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006) 206

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Woman describes crying during and after her abortion

In a pro-choice book, a woman who traveled from Ireland to England to have an abortion says:

“I spent that night in the clinic being checked on by nurses and crying a lot. I no longer had to hold it together. I had got to the UK… The third night was spent in the B&B and I knew I had to get all of my crying over and done with before I got home. As I shared my bedroom with my three younger sisters.”

Janet Ni Shuilleabhain “My Story” Aideena Quilty, Sinead Kennedy and Catherine Conlon The Abortion Papers Ireland: Volume 2 (Togher, Cork: Attic Press, 2015) 28

Despite appearing in a pro-choice book, this woman’s abortion doesn’t sound very empowering.

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Disability rights activist speaks out against aborting disabled babies

Disabled woman and activist Marsha Saxton:

“The message at the heart of widespread selective abortion on the basis of prenatal diagnosis is the greatest insult: some of us are “too flawed” in our very DNA to exist; we are unworthy of being born… Fighting for this issue, our right and worthiness to be born, is the fundamental challenge to disability oppression; it underpins our most basic claim to justice and equality – we are indeed worthy of being born, worth the help and expense, and we know it!”

Marsha Saxton “Disability Rights and Selective Abortion” Ricky Solinger, ed. Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle, 1950 – 2000 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University Of California Press, 1997) 391

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