November 2012 - Page 4 of 4

NARAL Calls Use of Ultrasounds “Intimidation”

Abortion clinics sell abortions. To expect an abortion clinic to be objective in describing abortion is like expecting a car dealership to be objective about buying a car. Clinics make money off of abortions. They don’t make money off of women having their babies.

For some quotes from abortion clinic counselors revealing their bias, go here.

For obvious reasons, abortion proponents oppose laws allowing women to see their ultrasounds before abortions. Even laws that do not require a woman to see her baby on the screen, but merely require her to be offered a chance are vigorously opposed by abortion rights organizations. They also fight crisis pregnancy centers, which often show women a sonogram of her baby in an attempt to allow her to make an informed choice.

Bill S. 340 Informed Choice Act Would have given grants to crisis pregnancy centers to buy ultrasound equipment

Kate Michelman president of NARAL pro-choice America said CPC would use ultrasound images to “intimidate” women also said “it never fails to amaze me how little respect they have for women’s capacity to understand what goes on in our bodies.”

David Crary “Abortion Foes Hope to Sway Pregnant Women with Ultrasound Images” Associated Press State and Local Wire February 1, 2001

For examples of women whose hearts and minds were changed by seeing ultrasounds, go here.

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Author Advocates for Legal Abortion

Pro-choice author Janet Hadley on the reasons abortion must remain legal. She admits in her book that abortion is the taking of a life.

“Without cheap, safe, people friendly contraception as well as the legal and safe means to end unwanted pregnancy, “anatomy is destiny” and women’s lives are still gruesome game of health roulette.” (emphasis author’s)

Janet Hadley “Abortion: between Freedom and Necessity” (Great Britain: Virago Press 1996) 131

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British Military Women Forced to Get Abortions

A pro-choice feminist gives the following information in her book about abortion:

Until 1990, the British military had a policy of kicking women who became pregnant out of the service if they did not abort. If a woman was found to be over 16 weeks pregnant she was discharged, even if she was in a clerical or office job or other noncombat position

From a telephone operator at Women’s Royal Navy Service:

“They gave me a weekend to think about it. It was like I was going to the dentist to have a tooth out. There was no compassion and no counseling… My boyfriend didn’t want to know, I had no choice.”

“Abortions Test Case for Army” Guardian March 28, 1994

According to a lawyer who represented women:

“There was a culture of abortion. If you went to the medical officer, you got told how quickly an abortion could be arranged and that the military hospital was lined up ready to do the operation.”

Janet Hadley “Abortion: between Freedom and Necessity” (Great Britain: Virago Press 1996) 102, 104

There have been many cases of women coerced into having abortions by employers. This is one example.

For more information on coerced abortions, go here.

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Maker of Abortion Pills Send Warnings to Emergency Rooms

Danco Laboratories , the manufacturer of the abortion pill RU-486 issued this warning to emergency room doctors. Below are exerpts of the letter:

November 15, 2004

Dear Emergency Room Director:

Danco Laboratories is providing this information to assist you in taking care of patients who may present in an emergency room setting following treatment with Mifeprex ® (mifepristone) and misoprostol. In particular, you should be aware of the rare events – serious infection, prolonged heavy bleeding and ruptured ectopic pregnancy – discussed below.

There may be some women who present to an emergency room with serious and sometimes fatal infections and bleeding that occur rarely following spontaneous (miscarriage), surgical and medical abortions, including following Mifeprex use, and childbirth. A high index of suspicion is needed for timely diagnosis and intervention in these patients.

A summary of the updated warnings follows:

Infection and Sepsis

In postmarketing experience following the use of Mifeprex and misoprostol, we have received a few reports of cases of serious bacterial infection, including very rare cases of fatal septic shock

Vaginal Bleeding

Vaginal bleeding occurs in almost all patients during the treatment procedure (see WARNINGS). According to data from the U.S. and French trials, women should expect toexperience vaginal bleeding or spotting for an average of nine to 16 days, while up to 8% of all subjects may experience some type of bleeding for 30 days or more. Prolonged heavy bleeding (soaking through two thick full-size sanitary pads per hour for two consecutive hours) may be a sign of incomplete abortion or other complications and prompt medical or surgical intervention may be needed to prevent the development of hypovolemic shock. Patients should be counseled to seek immediate medical attention if they experience prolonged heavy vaginal bleeding following a medical abortion. Excessive vaginal bleeding usually requires treatment by uterotonics, vasoconstrictor drugs, curettage, administration of saline infusions, and/or blood transfusions.

Ectopic Pregnancy

Additionally, in postmarketing experience we have received a small number of reports of ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Physicians should remain alert to the possibility that a patient who is undergoing a medical abortion could have an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy since some of the expected symptoms of a medical abortion may be similar to those of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. The presence of an ectopic pregnancy may have been missed even if the patient underwent ultrasonography prior to being prescribed Mifeprex.

We rely on medical feedback from health care professionals and therefore remind you to report serious adverse events and any on-going pregnancies following treatment with the Mifeprex regimen to us.

Please provide a brief clinical synopsis (by postal mail, email or phone):

Medical Director

Danco Laboratories, LLC
P.O. Box 4816
New York, NY 10185

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Attorney Describes “Assembly Line” Care at Abortion Clinic

“It was really a case of an assembly line, conducting abortions, one after another, three to five minutes apart.”

Attorney for the family of a girl who died from a legal abortion
ABC 20/20 Transcript # 99030802-j11, A Woman’s right, a woman’s risk, 3/8/1999

For examples of other women who died from legal abortions, go here.

For more cases of abortion malpractice go here.

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Abortionist on the Danger of Uterine Perforations

In an article in Salon, an abortionist said the following:

“This is why I hate overuse of forceps- things tear. There are only two kinds of doctors who have never perforated a uterus, those that lie and those who don’t do abortions.”

Margaret A. Woodbury “A doctor’s right to choose” Salon July 24, 2002

Can be found here.

For more details about the abortions this doctor performs, go here.

For more information on the dangers of abortion, go here.

For studies on abortion’s physical risks, go here.

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Mother of Down Syndrome Child Speaks Out

When tests reveal that unborn babies have Down Syndrome,the majority of women decide to terminate the pregnancy. Here are the reflections of one woman who has a child with Down Syndrome:

“Whenever I am out with Margaret, I’m conscious that she represents a group whose ranks are shrinking because of the wide availability of prenatal testing and abortion. I don’t know how many pregnancies are terminated because of prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, but some studies estimate 80 to 90%… Margaret does not view her life as unremitting human suffering (although she is angry that I haven’t bought her an iPod). She’s consumed with more important things, like the performance of the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs and the dance she’s going to this weekend. Oh sure, she wishes she could learn faster and have better math skills. So do I. But it doesn’t ruin our day, much less our lives. It’s the negative social attitudes that cause us to suffer.

Many young women, upon meeting us, have asked whether I had “the test.” I interpret the question as a get home free card. If I say no, they figure that means I’m a victim of circumstance, and therefore not implicitly repudiating the decision they may make to abort if they think there are disabilities involved. If yes, then it means I’m a right-wing antiabortion nut whose choices aren’t relevant to their lives.

Either way, they win.”

Patricia E Bauer “Selective Abortion Is Immoral” in Lucinda Almond The Abortion Controversy (New York: Greenhaven Press, 2007) 25-26

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Lack of Insurance Puts Pressure on Pregnant Woman to Abort

In the article “From Fence-Sitter to Activist” (which can be found here) a young woman describes the reasons why she became pro-life. She became pregnant while in college, and wanted to keep her baby. However, she ran into trouble due to her lack of health insurance.

“I arrived at the midwives’ clinic, which was in a local hospital. I reported for my appointment and was asked for my medicaid card. When I told them I was an uninsured college student, they told me that this was a clinic for medicaid patients. I begged. I pleaded. They sent me away.

I cried out in the parking lot. “They never flat out TELL you to have an abortion,” I sobbed to my husband, “but they make it very clear that they expect you to! They don’t offer you so much as a kind word!” I was heartbroken. Nobody cared about our baby. But a woman came running out of the hospital looking for us. Panting, she told us, “I’m glad I caught you before you left!” She introduced herself as one of the midwives. She assured me that she would make sure that I got proper prenatal care, and led us back inside. She took us to the financial office. There, she told a clerk to make payment arrangements for me, then send me back to the clinic. I never forgot the despair as I stood crying in the parking lot, or the relief and gratitude when the midwife reached out to me. I swore that I’d never leave a pregnant woman alone and despairing, as I had been.

Even with payment arrangements, we were nervous about the medical costs. I wondered if perhaps we could get some kind of catastropic insurance. We made an appointment. There, we were humiliated. The case worker counted our student loans as income, but didn’t count tuition and books as necessary expenses. We pleaded. We weren’t looking for full coverage — just emergency coverage in case something went wrong. We were told that we should have thought of this before I became pregnant. Back out in the parking lot I was furious. Again, they never outright TELL you to get an abortion, but they sure do make it plain what they expect. I hated the people who hated my baby.”

Extending health coverage to the uninsured, and making prenatal care and birth affordable for everyone will drastically cut the abortion rate. As this woman says, many pregnant women have nowhere to turn.

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Only a Small Percentage of Doctors Are Willing to Do Abortions

In an essay entitled “Abortion: the War on Women” author Elizabeth Fox – Genovese cited the following statistic:

only 5 out of 100 obstetricians/gynecologists are now willing to perform abortions

Lawrence B Finer and Stanley K Henshaw, “Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States in 2000,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 35:1 (2003): 6 – 15

Erika Bachiochi. The Cost of “Choice”: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion (San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books, 2004) 51

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