“Once, as I stood beside Judy [another prolifer] on the sidewalk in front of a killing center, she spoke to an abortion worker arriving for the day. Leaving her car, the worker made her way toward the entrance of the clinic. As she had done so many times before, Judy called the worker’s name and said, “Won’t you please let me help you find employment in another place? You can use your medical training to save lives instead of taking them.”
Unexpectedly, the woman turned to Judy and said, “Let me ask you a question. Do you think it’s okay to euthanize dogs?”
Judy and I looked at each other incredulous that she asked such a thing. Before we could answer, the worker said, “What’s the difference?”
Judy Madsen Johnson Stories from the Frontlines: the Battle against Abortion, self published, 2014
9 – 10 week unborn baby. Over 40% of all abortions happen after 9 weeksShare on Facebook
One abortionist, Charles deProsse, described how the older abortion technique of D&C (where the doctor scrapes the woman’s womb to remove the unborn baby) was more difficult for abortionists to deal with emotionally than the newer, now widely used suction abortion. In a suction abortion, a cannula attached to a tube is inserted and the baby is pulled apart by violent suction and removed from the womb. All the abortionist has to do is dilate the cervix and insert the cannula. He will see blood and tissue going through the tube, but usually no recognizable body parts unless the remains are carefully examined. Here is the quote:
“The technique was such that it put a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of doctors with respect to therapeutic abortions. The only thing we had at the time… was doing a routine D&C… And doing an abortion by routine D&C was a very bloody procedure, frighteningly so, sometimes… I don’t think that without the advent of suction abortion that abortion would ever have been is accepted by the medical practice as it was… A lot of older doctors, when it did become legal, just all they could think of was this horrendous therapeutic abortion regimen that they had gone through, and they just didn’t want to do it, didn’t want to get involved.”
Johanna Choen Choice & Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005) 185
Journalist Frank Main wrote an article about an abortion clinic and interviewed its administrator, Esther McGuire. He says:
“Women seeking abortions must walk past protesters with the protection of pro-choice clinic escorts. Some of the women become angry, while others burst into tears. Fewer women come back another day, while a handful decide to keep their babies, McGuire said.
“I’m not sure that’s so bad if they were that uncertain anyway,” she said.
Whether or not this abortion clinic administrator really is as accepting of women changing their minds as she seems, or whether she is merely trying to give that impression to an interviewer, this quote shows that women DO change their minds as a result of pro-life activity outside of abortion clinics. Sidewalk counseling DOES save lives.
Main goes on to say:
“McGuire said some women who have obtained abortions at the Delta women’s clinic went on to protest abortions at the clinic, underlying what she described as widespread hypocrisy about the issue.”
8 week old unborn baby – most abortions are done at this time or later. Even saving ONE baby like this one is a tremendous victory.
Or it could mean that these women were emotionally or maybe even physically hurt by their abortions, and that after they experienced the reality of how horrible abortion was, they wanted to spare other women the same trauma that they went through. Many postabortion women are now pro-life and are active in crisis pregnancy center work or sidewalk counseling. Many times, they are the most effective pro-lifers because they have been there. They are not hypocrites; rather, they know firsthand the destructive power that abortion has over women. They know what it’s like to face a crisis pregnancy, and they want to help others.
Even a “handful” of lives saved is a victory.
Frank Main “Clinic Administrator Believes Women Must Have an Option” (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) Morning Advocate July 5, 1992
In one of the partial-birth abortion ban trials (New York) one abortionist was asked whether he ever considered whether or not aborted babies felt pain. Here’s the exchange:
THE COURT: Does it ever cross your mind when you are doing a dismemberment?
THE WITNESS: I guess whenever I —
THE COURT: Simple question, Doctor. Does it cross your mind?
THE WITNESS: Does the fetus having pain cross your mind?
THE COURT: Yes.
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: Never crossed your mind.
THE WITNESS: No.
Testimony of abortionist Dr Timothy Johnson, National Abortion Federation, et. al. v. Ashcroft, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, March 31, 2004
LifeNews recently wrote about an abortionist named Willie J. Parker who identifies as Christian. He performs abortions up to 24 weeks and 6 days.
What inspires this African American doctor to kill 24 week babies like the one below? The words of Martin Luther King Jr.
24 weeks
“In listening to a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, I came to a deeper understanding of my spirituality, which places a higher value on compassion. King said what made the good Samaritan “good” is that instead of focusing on would happen to him by stopping to help the traveler, he was more concerned about what would happen to the traveler if he didn’t stop to help.
I became more concerned about what would happen to these women if I, as an obstetrician, did not help them.”
He also says:
“ I think my work is honorable and important, and I won’t be distracted. It’s what I believe in my heart is the right thing to do.”
baby being aborted at 24 weeks
There is, however, a limit to his “altruism.” He won’t do abortions after the legal cutoff.
“I don’t do abortions beyond 24 weeks and 6 days. In the absence of lifesaving measures, my cutoff is the legal limit. That becomes a moving target, but nobody in D.C. does them beyond 25 weeks.Once a fetus has the possibility to survive outside the womb — with or without extraordinary support measures — I will not do an abortion. The only exception is if a woman’s life is in danger or the fetus is fatally flawed.”
Dr. Lisa Perriera, abortionist at Preterm, an abortion clinic in Cleveland:
“[On the heartbeat bill]. It would have presented a lot of issues. It would’ve required women to travel to other places to have abortions if they wanted to have them. But the patients that I care for are of so little means already, it would have forced them to continue their pregnancy. We would have had a lot more women that are having babies that don’t want to have them.”
Robin Marty, Jessica Mason Pieklo Crow After Roe (Brooklyn, New York: ig Publishing, 2013) 41
The Heartbeat Bill was a proposed pro-life law that would have banned abortion after the heart of the baby can be heard in the clinic. Although the heart begins beating at 21 days or so, instruments cannot detect the heartbeat until somewhat later. However, this law would have criminalized all but the very earliest abortions.
Unborn baby at 9 weeks. Over 40% of all abortions are done after this point, in the 10th week or beyond. Abortion at this stage would be illegal if a heartbeat law was in effect.
This abortionist clearly laments the fact that babies might be born who would otherwise be aborted. Preventing abortions, in her view,seems to be the wrong thing to do. She laments the fact that women would have their babies and reveals a proabortion mindset
“The vast majority of abortion surgeons available are men. These surgeons are highly trained experts. But, unfortunately, if a woman feels uncomfortable about a man performing the procedure, she is unlikely to be able to request a female surgeon. She will be supported by nurses throughout treatment, who are very likely to be female, and a request to have a female nurse present should be possible to meet.”
Johanna Payton Abortion: The Essential Guide (Need2Know, October 16th 2012) Kindle edition
The term “treatment” is often used in England as euphemism for an abortion procedure.
It’s interesting to reflect on how most abortion doctors are male. Pro-life feminists say that abortion is demeaning and exploitive to women. Could it be that women physicians sense this and are less likely to participate in abortions? Why are all the women working these clinics (that Wilson describes) subservient to the men?
“There are even members of the pro-choice community who are questioning the morality of reproductive freedom. These people believe that abortion must be available, but that it is inherently bad – a necessary evil.… In fact, the decision to have an abortion is clearly an extremely moral choice; it is a choice that liberates, empowers, and benefits women that society.”
Henry Morgentaler, “The Moral Case for Abortion” Free Inquiry, Summer 1996
“I think it’s okay to be selfish. I don’t think there’s anything bad about putting yourself first. I don’t mean selfish is in the sense of greediness. I mean thinking clearly about yourself and what is best for you and the world and what you can deal with.… I can list you 1 million reasons why I wouldn’t want to have a kid, and they’re all selfish. But what is the point of being selfless about it? Why have a child that’s not wanted? So I see selfishness as a virtue in making choices for yourself and your life.”
Patricia Launneborg Abortion: a Positive Decision (New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1992) 157
most abortions are done at this stage or later
Below: what the baby looks like after an abortion around this age:
