They said it.
From abortionist Christine Henneberg:
“I happen to think there is nuance and beauty in exploring the uterus, a three-dimensional space that one cannot see with one’s own eyes.
(Some nights after a day of abortion training, I’ve had dreams of cave-diving in the dark, using my hands to navigate vast chambers and hidden passageways).”
Christine Henneberg Boundless: An Abortion Doctor Becomes a Mother (San Francisco, California, 2022) 220
Share on FacebookWriting in 1977, two abortion doctors said:
“The changing of the law has not changed the moral climate surrounding abortion. The vast majority of nurses and health workers do not want to become involved in abortion care.”
Selig Neubardt, MD and Harold Shulman MD Techniques of Abortion, 2nd ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977) 5
Many nurses and health care providers continue to view abortion as distasteful, even today.
Share on FacebookRobin Marty gives other pro-abortion people advice on breaking the law:
“When it comes to potentially illegal activities such as bringing abortion-inducing medicines through border checkpoints or helping a teen cross state lines if [a law against transporting minors across state boundaries to have abortions without parental consent] is ever passed into law, the best candidate to take these risks will likely be white, more specifically white clergy, middle-aged or retired white women, or, in small communities, active churchgoers.
It should be the people most likely to inspire trust in and tamp down the suspicion of those who might later investigate them.
And it should also be the people the police are most likely to overlook, and the ones who would make the most sympathetic public cases in the media if they were discovered and arrested.
It should also be someone familiar with and prepared to adhere to all other laws when taking on a potentially illegal action. For example, if a person were to travel with non-prescribed pharmaceuticals in their possession, they would be advised to be abundantly careful about any other laws they could be breaking that could cause the car or the person to be searched.
That means knowing the state laws, such as whether marijuana possession is a crime if it is illegal to talk on a cell phone when driving, even seatbelt laws.
It would also be important to ensure that they don’t speed, that there is no vehicular defect (like a broken tail light) that could cause a cop to pull them over, and that they will obey all traffic lights and signs.”
Robin Marty Handbook for a Post-Roe America (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2019) 108
This book contains instructions for dangerous self-abortion methods as well as advice on how to conduct illegal activities to provide and promote abortion.
Share on FacebookIn an article in the New York Times, a lawyer talks about a case he took regarding a 15-year-old who had an abortion in Tennessee:
“The girl’s mother had been shot and killed by her stepfather, and her grandmother got custody of her. Her dad said come live with him or he would kill himself. She said she couldn’t and he did kill himself.
Four months later, she got pregnant, and the boy said, ‘Have an abortion or I’ll kill myself.’ She wanted the baby, had already chosen a name. But she got pulled into having an abortion.
Within a week she was admitted to the emergency room, crying uncontrollably. She’s been in psychiatric care for more than a year now….
I’ve been working with this little 15-year old for a year, and it’s a way of ministering to the second victims of abortion, the women who’ve been damaged.”
TAMAR LEWIN “A New Weapon In an Old War — A special report.; Latest Tactic Against Abortion: Accusing Doctors of Malpractice” The New York Times April 9, 1995
Share on FacebookA former abortion worker said the following:
“I was often reprimanded for spending too much time talking to the girls on the phone or in counseling. Their philosophy was “Get ‘em in, Get ‘em out.” They would add more and more cases until some days the clinic had the feel of a production line.”
Abby Johnson The Walls Are Talking: Former Abortion Clinic Workers Tell Their Stories (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2016) 98
Share on FacebookAccording to statistics, money is a factor in most abortions. Most people who abort do so at least in part because they feel they can’t afford to raise a child. In fact, in one poll, 73% of women having abortions gave this as a reason.
These women might have chosen to have their babies if they had had the financial support they needed.
Here is one example from an article in the New York Times.
The article says:
“Leah, 26, said money was a factor in her decision to have an abortion… she works in a clothing boutique, a job that she said did not pay enough to support a child….”
According to Leah:
“I always said I would never, ever have an abortion. I probably will regret it.”
She saw an ultrasound of her child, but she was only 5 weeks along, too early for the ultrasound to show detail. The child, at this point, is too small and isn’t developed enough to look like a baby on the ultrasound screen.
Leah says:
“If I saw an actual fetal baby on the ultrasound, I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it.”
Of course, Leah’s baby already had a heartbeat and a developing brain – he or she was a human being, regardless of what he or she looked like.
After her abortion, Leah said:
“I thought I’d be crying. I feel goofy now, but not in a bad way. I feel relieved more than anything. I know I’ll never forget it, but I’d rather do that than have a child I can’t take care of.”
Many women feel relief right after their abortions. After all, they’ve just gone through surgery and it’s now over. The “problem” has been taken care of – or so they think. All too often, depression, regret, grief, and guilt surface later.
On Medium, I wrote a post about poverty and how it drives abortion rates, and possible ways to solve the problem.
JOHN LELAND “Under Din of Abortion Debate, an Experience Shared Quietly” New York Times SEPT. 18, 2005
Share on FacebookJudy Mathe Foley is the former managing editor of the national magazine of the Episcopal Church. She is pro-choice and says:
“Birth, though a truly miraculous process, is only one of many miracles in God’s world over which we have stewardship.
Sometimes that stewardship will involve making choices because we are co-creators with God of a constantly evolving creation. Every decision we make cuts off another road – that’s the unfortunate nature of decision-making!”
Judy Mathe Foley “A Faith-Filled Talk of Life and Death” in Phyllis Tickle, ed. Confessing Conscience: Churched Women on Abortion (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1990) 74 – 75
Click to see what this baby looks like after an abortion
Share on FacebookA post-abortive woman named Tammy tells her story:
“I was a scared 16-year-old girl when I had my abortion. It is the worst decision I have ever made and I have regretted it for the nearly 20 years since it happened. I went to a clinic in Illinois. I was a minor, of course, and did not have to have any parental consent.
I also did not receive proper counseling. I have no idea to this day what kind of procedure I had. I was also not sure how far along I was in the pregnancy.
I do remember discussion between the doctor and nurse stating the pregnancy was farther along than they originally thought. That did not stop them from doing the procedure.
I was left afterward feeling worthless, empty, and I regret this experience every single day. It has taken years for me to recover emotionally, although I am not sure if a woman can ever completely recover.”
Janet Morana Everything You Need to Know about Abortion – For Teens (Gastonia, North Carolina: TAN Books, 2021) 111
Share on FacebookDr. Tersia Cruywagen, owner of an abortion clinic in South Africa:
“We tell people, “We don’t know if abortion is right or wrong.” We don’t, really. But what we do know is that we deal with a lot of patients in disastrous situations and a lot of emotional pain, and that Is what we want to do – assist them through a very traumatic experience…and make it less traumatic.”
Lara M Knudson Reproductive Rights in a Global Context (Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006) 203
Pro-life feminist Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote:
“Abortion is not a sign that women are free, but a sign that they are desperate.”
Frederica Mathewes-Green “Abortion: Women’s Rights and Wrongs” Frederica.com (blog) January 1, 2000
Quoted in Steven A Christie, MD Speaking for the Unborn: 30 Second Pro-Life Rebuttals to Pro-Choice Arguments (Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2022) 129
Mathewes-Green has interviewed many post-abortive women
Share on Facebook