Category: Emotional Impact on Providers

From Dr. Warren Hern, late-term abortionist:

“[Abortion] counselors also have difficulty coping with their own feelings about women who have late second trimester abortions for no apparent reason.”

Warren M Hern Abortion Practice (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: JB Lippincott Company, 1990) 89

Abortion clinic workers see the violence of 2nd trimester abortions, and the torn off arms and legs of the babies. When they see women having 2nd trimester abortions without good reason, it upsets them– At least some of the time

This is the most common abortion method in the late 2nd trimester:

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University of California obgyn Sadra Goldsmith:

“The gynecologist is aware of being the active agent in a D&E procedure [because he/she] is the one who is crushing and dismembering the fetus.”

“MD Shun 16^th Week D&E as Reminder of Destroyed Fetus” Medical Tribune January 25, 1978, p 9

This is a diagram of the procedure she is talking about:

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When nurses at a New York hospital got upset at the sight of an aborted baby that moved, the physician said that it was nothing more than “a reflexive response of a spinal animal.”

Howard D. Kibel “Staff Reactions to Abortion: A Psychiatrist’s View” Obstetrics and Gynecology 39 (January 1972): 131

Quoted in William Brennan The Abortion Holocaust: Today’s Final Solution (St. Louis, Missouri, 1983)

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From the Journal of Medical Ethics:

“It is clear that physically dismembering and removing the fetus is emotionally distressing for the doctor. A doctor, therefore, has to overcome an element of revulsion in order to do a late term surgical termination of pregnancy… Dismemberment of a baby so violates a general human instinct that it is morally worse than destruction of the fetus by other means.”

Nicholas Johnson, Journal of Medical Ethics 1989, vol. 15, p 82

Jenny Bryan Abortion (East Sussex, England: Wayland Publishers Limited, 1991) 43

The following chart illustrates the procedure this article mentions:

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From one abortionist:

“I have been doing abortion for years and have no physical or emotional reaction. I worry this means that I don’t have any respect for human life.”

Joanna Brien, Ida Fairbairn Pregnancy and Abortion Counseling (London: Routledge, 1996) 175

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From a consultant gynecologist, who makes abortion referrals:

“I find the process of midtrimester abortion of a normal fetus very disagreeable (and if done by D&E) nauseating.”

Joanna Brien, Ida Fairbairn Pregnancy and Abortion Counseling (London: Routledge, 1996) 167

Diagram of a D&E

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There are two ways to do late-term abortion – by injecting poison to kill the baby and then inducing labor or by going in and dismembering the baby with forceps. Some abortionists prefer the poisoning (induction) method, because they don’t have to be there when the mother expels her dead child.

“With respect to second trimester abortion, providers seek to distance themselves from an unpleasant procedure: physicians prefer medical abortions (where they need not be present at the expulsion of the fetus) and nurses prefer D&E procedures (where the physician does the “distasteful” surgery).”

Beverly Winikoff, Acceptability of First Trimester Medical Abortion (New York: The Population Council, 1994)

This is a D & E procedure:

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On an abortion procedure called D&E:

“D&E often involves greater emotional strain on the clinicians and staff. It forces them to deal with the fetus in an intimate way that many find distasteful.”

W Cates “D&E After 12 Weeks: Safe or Hazardous?” Contemporary Ob/Gyn, Medical Economics Co. 13:23-29, January 1979

below is a diagram showing how a D&E is done

In this video, a former abortionist describes the D&E procedure.

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A writer tells of a clinic worker who recounted a nightmare she was having:

“Another writer told of a nurse who dreamed that she “was stuffing a baby into the mouth of [an antique] vase. The baby was looking at her with a pleading expression. Around the vase was a white ring. She interpreted this as representing the other nurses looking upon her act with condemnation.

He drew the conclusion that her dream “shows that unconsciously the act of abortion was experienced as an act of murder. It should be noted that this nurse was strongly committed intellectually to the new abortion law. Her reaction was typical. Regardless of one’s religious or philosophic orientation, the unconscious view of abortion remains the same. This was the most significant thing that was learned as a result of these sessions.”

Kibel, H. D., “Editorial: Staff Reactions to Abortion,”Obstetrics and Gynecology(1972) 39(1).

Rachel M. MacNair “The Nightmares of Choice” Touchstone  September, 2003

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