B. R. Arnowitz interviewed abortion clinic workers, asking them about women’s emotions during abortions. In the article “Abortion and the Actualized Self”, writer Camille S. Williams explains what clinic workers told Arnowitz :
“Anesthesia pops the lid off the id,” clinic workers tell Arnowitz. Under anesthesia, women vocalize their conflicted states: “I had to do this. I didn’t want to kill this baby. My husband didn’t want it. My poor baby. I hate him.” Religious and superstitious women appear to have the worst experiences, “apparently due to their guilt and consequent conflict.”
This quote is in the article Camille S. Williams “Abortion and the Actualized Self” First Things November 1991.
It is referring to B. R. Arnowitz’s essay called “The Psychodynamics of Abortion” (included in a volume titled Critical Psychophysical Passages in the Life of A Woman, edited by Joan Offerman-Zuckerberg).
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