They said it.
“There is clearly, absolutely a physician shortage. The situation is worse now than it was 20 years ago.”
Clare Keys, director of Allegheny Reproductive Health Ctr., Pittsburgh, PA
The Associated Press, August 22, 1999
Mark Crutcher “Access: the Key to Pro-Life Victory” Life Dynamics Incorporated,
Share on Facebook“It’s indicative of the growing problem of disappearing providers. Every one that closes doors makes abortion less accessible.”
Judy Redman, director of Planned Parenthood of Louisiana
The Times–Picayune, September 23, 1999 (commenting on the closing of a New Orleans abortion clinic after 10 years of operation)
Mark Crutcher “Access: the Key to Pro-Life Victory” Life Dynamics Incorporated,
Share on FacebookAbortionist Susan Wicklund:
“Across the country there are many more clinics that have closed and fewer physicians providing abortions. Every year, there are more and more roadblocks for patients.”
SARAH STILLMAN “THE REALITY OF ROE” the New Yorker JANUARY 22, 2013
Share on FacebookThe reason why Dr. Mila Means wanted to open up an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas:
She looked at the finances of her solo family practice and figured she might be the poorest doctor in the state. Though she lives modestly, she has had continuing problems managing money: her credit card companies have taken her to court, and her checks occasionally bounce. Determined to work alone, she did not have enough patients to cover the bills.
Offering abortions seemed the easiest way to keep the doors to her small office open, she said. The need was also there, she felt.”
….
She bought much of Dr. Tiller’s medical equipment and office furniture for $20,000. Her goal was to continue her family practice and also start performing abortions of fetuses up to 15 weeks.
So here we see that money was the motivating factor for a person who wanted to open up an abortion clinic. Abortion is very lucrative for those who own and operate the clinics.
Ironically, Mila Means was once pro-life – before the lure of easy money turned out to be too much to resist. The article goes on:
By her own admission, it was a sharp reversal for Dr. Means, 54. Though she had grown up supporting abortion rights — she remembers her father instructing her that she would have to have an abortion if she got pregnant in high school — she eventually became a regular churchgoer who taught abstinence classes to Christian youths.
In 2001, she even interviewed to work at a local pregnancy crisis center that counsels women not to have abortions (she did not get the job, according to both parties, because she expressed her belief that abortion was acceptable in cases of rape or incest). A decade later and no longer a regular churchgoer, she disavows her old views as the result of “religious brainwashing.”
A number of the doctor’s patients left when they found that she would be performing abortions
About 100 of her patients switched to other doctors. Among them was Susan Lear, the head of the Pregnancy Crisis Center of Wichita, who had interviewed Dr. Means for a job there a decade earlier.
Susan Lear tried to convince Dr. Means not to perform abortions:
At her last appointment in December, Ms. Lear said, Dr. Means spent more than 40 minutes explaining her change of heart on abortion, speaking in a confessional tone. “I heard a person who step by step by step had gotten to this place,” Ms. Lear said. “She was on a mission, she knew what she was getting into.”
“I said, ‘You’ve made the loneliest choice,’ ” Ms. Lear recalled telling her.
A. G. SULZBERGER “Wichita Doctor Takes Up Fight for Abortions” New York Times July 9, 2011
Share on FacebookA clinic worker speaks:
“I have also been in the theatre when the abortions are performed. An early abortion, i.e. less than 11 weeks, can be completed in five minutes if the patient is under a general anaesthetic. Later abortions take up to half an hour, and I won’t pretend, it’s pretty difficult to watch. I must admit, I almost passed out watching one of the later abortions, but I’m glad I saw it. I’d feel like a hypocrite if I carried on working and didn’t know what went on in the operating theatre. I’m in a difficult position because I do have sympathy for the foetuses that are aborted at such late stages, but, when you talk to the women in that position, you soon realise that they’re not terminating their pregnancies for frivolous reasons.”
Sabrina “Working in an abortion clinic” TheSite.org Community: Real Life
Sociologist Charles L Bosk spent time interviewing workers at a clinic that did “genetic counseling” of pregnant women and couples and sometimes encouraged them to abort. They also treated sick children and managed the pregnancies of the woman who didn’t abort, but they showed bias for abortion in many cases. Here is one example.
A couple did not know whether or not their child would be handicapped. They did not abort, and the child was born healthy. This conversation took place between two doctors:
“He [one of the doctors] says, “Look, we’ve been in this situation before with Mr. Whatsit, who had the funny 3rd chromosome. We downplayed it, and everything worked out happily; things worked out in that situation.”
At this point, Bill Smith says, “You’ve got to watch that.”
Giordano is puzzled, “Watch what?”
Bill said, “that “happily” – what if the Whatsits aborted, and the fetus had been normal? Well, it still would’ve been “happily” because it’s a situation they could live with.” Bill then said that Giordano should avoid saying “happily” for pregnancies that are carried to term, that that’s not necessarily any more of a happy conclusion than an abortion.”
Charles L Bosk All God’s Mistakes: Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992) 124
Yes, this medical doctor felt that giving birth to a healthy baby was not any “happier” than the healthy baby dying in an abortion. And these were the people who counseled pregnant women in a vulnerable state.
Share on FacebookAuthor Faye D Ginsburg said the following in 1989:
“The media in general gives disproportionate attention to violence and conflates those who carry out that activity with the [Pro-life]movement as a whole. It is not only that violence makes a good story that sells newspapers. The profession of journalism is dominated by liberals who favor a pro-choice position. Not surprisingly, the more extreme and reprehensible pro-life activities that paint the movement in the worst light receive the most coverage.”
Faye D Ginsburg Contested Lives: the Abortion Debate in an American Community (Berkeley and Los Angeles California: University of California Press, 1989) 52
In the 1980s – 1990s, coverage of the abortion issue was extremely biased. It still is – and this is evidenced by how few media outlets covered the Gosnells trial – but it was much much worse back in the day. I have always believed that the Internet is one of the major reasons why there are fewer abortions today and why the pro-life movement is stronger, much stronger, that was in the 1990s when I was first getting involved. People now have access to news and information that was not available when the major news sources were able to control all the information that people got. Now sites like Live Action, Lifenews, Life Site News, etc. give information to thousands and thousands of people a day. This website gets around 1500 visits a day, and the information on it reaches far more people than I could ever reach without the Internet. But the media bias is still a problem.
Share on FacebookSociologist Charles L Bosk interviewed workers and sat in on sessions at a clinic that did genetic counseling, where medical professionals encouraged abortion when women came in pregnant with children who had disabilities.
In one case where a doctor was counseling a couple about their pregnancy, an amniocentesis revealed that the baby may or may not be handicapped. The counselor did not urge her to abort. Samuels, another doctor, thought he should have:
“Samuels knew exactly what direction he would take in counseling. He described the pregnancy as “unacceptable” and then continued: “The woman is 34, she had the procedure [amniocentesis] done for high anxiety, and nothing that has been done so far would reduce the level of anxiety. In fact, given the marker, this is the kind of situation where you can’t even tell immediately after birth whether or not the child will be born with some damage”…
…You have a test result. And when you look at the whole picture, the 34-year-old woman, the high anxiety – you see she needs more direction. You have a resolvable situation; you can remove her anxiety by performing the abortion. And if you told her she could get pregnant again, they would not be in the place they are now.”
Charles L Bosk All God’s Mistakes: Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992) 120 – 121
Share on FacebookPro-lifer John Jansen put together the following series of images showing screenshots of pro-choice activists saying that they “love” abortion. This is not the “safe, legal, and rare” that politicians talk about – this is pure proabortion rhetoric.
First, a graphic which has been making the rounds on Facebook:
Now some more screenshots from around the net:
Now here are some pictures of the things that these pro-choice activists “love”
The quotes above were taken from an article at LifeNews. You can see this article here
Share on FacebookAbortion clinic administrator:
“Pretty typically, our patients come from small towns… The majority are happy and healthy. If anything is guilt and trauma inducing, it’s the people picketing in front of our clinic.”
Faye D Ginsburg Contested Lives: the Abortion Debate in an American Community (Berkeley and Los Angeles California: University of California Press, 1989) 2
Testimonies from women who have had abortions seem to indicate that most are not going into the abortion clinic “happy” about their decision. As for healthy, this just gives evidence that few abortions are done for medical reasons.In fact, an analysis of all the abortions that took place between 1980 and 2000 found that only .36% were performed on women who had a health problem that interfered with her pregnancy.
Pro-life protesters are not there to make women feel guilty, but to offer them information they may not get inside the clinic and help with alternatives. Often clinic workers give false and misleading information about unborn babies and do not present all the abortion alternatives and where to go for help. Sidewalk counselors try to reach the women going in with the truth that they do not have to have an abortion; there are other options available and people who will help them in real, practical ways. Crisis pregnancy centers, which these sidewalk counselors often direct women to, offer a full range of services to pregnant women and their partners including free counseling, ultrasounds, baby clothes and diapers, and referrals to many different organizations. Sometimes these crisis pregnancy centers offer free medical care and housing along with parenting classes and job training. In contrast, the abortion clinic will take their money, do the abortion, and then send them home to cope with the aftermath.
Abortion itself can have very severe psychological complications for many women. A woman who has an abortion is 6 times more likely to commit suicide than a woman who hasn’t. Teens have a 10 times higher suicide rate after abortion. Hospitalizations for psychiatric illness and other disorders, as well as grief and guilt reactions sometimes including bad dreams or a condition similar to posttraumatic stress disorder, can sometimes happen
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