Category: Anti-Choice Abortions

An abortion clinic escort tells this story:

The other story I heard from JD, another friend of mine who happens to be an escort. She said she ran into a guy she used to go to school with, and while making small talk about the latest stuff that was going on in their lives, the guy said that his girlfriend was pregnant, and he was going to “make her get an abortion”.

“Two Happy Stories” Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome July 31, 2008

An abortion clinic escort writes about parents who tried to force her daughter to get an abortion. A sidewalk counselor tries to reach out to the mother and teen to offer resources and help, and the mother attacks her. The clinic escort feels this is justified:

“And the worst incident was a young woman whose mother had dragged her here. The patient clearly did not want to have an abortion; while in to have her ultrasound she freaked out about the finger prick test, and then told the nurse, her mother and anyone who would listen that it was a blessing to be pregnant, a beautiful gift from God. Incidents like this are never as amusing as you think they are going to be, at least not at the time. While back in the waiting room, she was talking to her parents, trying to get them to leave. Another patient came up to me in tears and told me that either Gift-from-God patient had to go, or she would. Apparently GfG was blabbing on in the middle of the waiting room about how she wasn’t going to “kill [her] baby” and all that. In the end, we had to ask her to either leave or stop upsetting the other patients. She left.

Outside, GfG and her parents were approached by Pink Hat, in her rosary-counting, Jesus-totin’ glory. GfG’s mother was already SUPER PISSED, and ended up giving Pink Hat a nice little shove (she wasn’t hurt). While I don’t condone the violence, I feel that the protesters have to assume that their presence is going to provoke that kind of reaction sometimes.”

“They Say it Comes in Threes” Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Prochoice author Alexander Sanger, who is a descendant of Margaret Sanger, concedes in his book:

“Legal abortion has led to a situation where there is little community pressure for the man to marry the woman and he often disappears, leaving the woman to make the decision on her own. At this point community pressure can have a decisive influence on her decision. Unmarried childbearing may not be acceptable where she lives, and she is forced to have an abortion, even if it is her last chance to have children.”

Alexander Sanger Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21^st Century (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) 128

A 17-year-old girl who had a forced abortion at Dr. George Tiller’s late-term abortion clinic describes her horrible experience:

When I was 17 I found out that I was pregnant and told my parents, who objected to me having a baby and said that I was having an abortion like it or not. After much mental anguish and threat of physical abuse, my parents said that I could keep the baby. Two weeks later, my mother woke me up and informed me that the decision had been made that I was getting an abortion. She told me to get up and take a bath. I sat in the bathtub with a razor in my hand with my mom yelling at me to hurry up, we had to go. After my bath, all hell broke lose because my dad saw me crying. He yelled, called me names, and said that if I didn’t go get this taken care of, he would take care of it himself…..

When I got to the clinic there were tons of protesters outside and security escorted us inside where upon we were checked with a metal detector wand for safety. I read all of the signs outside and heard all the pleas to run to a car to safety. They said that they would take care of me if I didn’t want to do it and that my mother could do nothing about it. I was scared to death and could not run, as security had met us at the car and were ushered in. But I wanted to, and I will forever regret not doing so.

Upon going inside the first waiting room there were some girls who came in and were laughing and taunting the protesters outside. I kept crying. My mother would see me and tell me to quit and not screw this up. She said it was getting done one way or another.

First of all, to confirm pregnancy they did a sonogram. The screen was facing away from me where I could not see it. I remember thinking that I felt unreal. I kept thinking this was a dream, then during the sonogram, I sat up to look at the monitor. The lady was shocked that I did this. I asked her, if there was a heartbeat. She paused then said, “Yes, right there,” and pointed. I asked her how far along I was. I remember her saying but I don’t recall exactly. It seems it was 14 to 16 weeks….

After this I was taken into another waiting room. This was full of other young girls with their mothers who looked as though they did not wish to be there either….

 I did a lot of thinking in there. I was angry and still looking for a way out of this clinic without my mom killing me or me killing my baby, but they had not one time left me alone without my mother. I remember feeling like they knew I could/would not speak up with her right there. Then a nurse came and got me and took me to the room to “get this taken care of,” as they put it. This was the first time that my mother was not by my side. I immediately told the nurse that I did not want to do this, that I was scared of going home not pregnant, explained past abuse and such, and asked her to help me.

She said “If you really don’t want to do this then we can have someone take you to another clinic across town. They will do it against your will if you want.” All of this was happening so fast, they were having me strip and put on a gown, and she was prepping to give me the IV. I had no idea was coming. I looked at the vacuum they used. I was scared. I just knew she was going to go tell my mom what I had said, then my dad would find out, so through my tears I said, “No, I have to. Do it.”

“In Their Own Words: Women’s Stories Of Coerced, Botched, and Illegal Abortions At Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita, KS” Operation Rescue

Read more of this young girl story, and the stories of several other women who had bad experiences of Dr. Tiller’s clinic, here.

From a woman named Beatrice, who had an abortion in an attempt to save her failing marriage:

“I was married, 38 years old, and my marriage was on the rocks – my husband had affairs… That broke my heart to begin with, then we went away and I fell pregnant. I had an 11-year-old son and I had not fallen pregnant in all those years. I thought it was a miracle and still do. My husband’s reaction was totally different. He made it clear he didn’t want any more children… I was in shock, confused… I don’t use the word “choice” because… when you are cornered there does not seem to be a choice. I look at my husband has been “judge” and myself the “executioner.”

Melinda Tankard Reist Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief after Abortion (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2007) 26 – 27

Sadly, coerced abortions are very common. In one study, 64% of women who had abortions said that they were having them because their male partner wanted them to. (I.L. Horton and D. Cheng, “Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy-Associated Mortality-Maryland, 1993-1998,” JAMA 285(11): 1455-1459 (2001); see also J. Mcfarlane et. al., “Abuse During Pregnancy and Femicide: Urgent Implications for Women’s Health,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 100: 27-36 (2002).)

Abortion is not always about a woman’s “choice.”

Read more about coerced abortion here

Commenting on a case where a 14-year-old girl is being forced into abortion by her family, Texas Center for Defense of Life, one of their attorneys, Stephen Casey said the following:

“It’s not the first case in Texas and these cases are very very under reported. Girls go through these situations they don’t feel like they have a representative or an advocate and that’s what TCDL does, is we let them know they’re not alone. And they have a constitutional right to carry their child and protect their child.”

Quoted in Kristi Burton Brown “Right to Choose?” Live action blog, January 11, 2012