A pro-life author tells the following story:
“In conducting interviews for this book, I was introduced to one young woman from the Southwest whose experience underscored the disinformation that comes from abortion clinics. As a single college student, Annie was shocked to learn that she was pregnant. After telling her boyfriend the news, he urged her to get an abortion.
Annie made the appointment. The clinic personnel told her to call “anytime you want to talk.” Feeling lonely and confused, she confided in her sister. Anne was in for a jolt. Having written a paper on pregnancy, her sister knew something about the development of the unborn and the experience of pain in the fetus. She pointed these things out to Annie, who didn’t know what to believe.
“I had to call the abortion clinic to find out for sure. When I reached them, I told the counselor who I was and asked “Will the baby feel it, and what will it look like?” The counselor said, “It won’t look like anything more than a little ball of cotton, and it won’t be able to feel anything.”
Unconvinced, she went to a crisis pregnancy center, which told her the truth and let her see an ultrasound. She kept her baby.
Curt Young The Least of These: What Everyone Should Know about Abortion (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1984) 59
In 1984, abortions were almost never done before seven weeks because the suction cannula used to perform abortions at the time often missed babies that were too small, leading to complications or a continuing pregnancy. Usually if a woman was not yet 7 – 8 weeks into her pregnancy, they sent her home to wait. So if the clinic workers were already trying to get her to come in, this woman’s baby must have been at least seven weeks old. A picture of a seven week old baby is below:
