A nurse who works with late-term abortions said this in a letter to a pro-choice columnist:
“I know of two nurses who went off work with stress as a result of their experience with late terminations. I suffered tremendous nightmares and guilt for months. The guilt comes from the fact that you as a nurse cut the umbilical cord and, as dramatic as it sounds, we felt like murderers.”
“One [clinic worker], Nina Miller, felt that she should explore the contents of the cheesecloth sack [that held first-trimester abortion remains] to prepare her for dealing with human tissue in medical school…as a biology major, she was fascinated by the veins and villi, the tiny threads waving from the tiny placenta, of eight-and-nine week POCs[products of conception i.e., aborted babies]. On the human level though, she was horrified by the little arms and legs lying in blood. Each time she asked herself, “What are we doing here?” And each time she went home to reconsider her commitment to helping women end pregnancies they didn’t want.”
Sue Hertz. Caught in the Crossfire: A Year on Abortion’s Front Line (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1991) p 104-105
A doctor said she was performing an abortion on a 30-year-old doctor after she herself had just had a miscarriage.
10 week-old unborn baby
She had been trying for seven years to become pregnant.
After the abortion, she said,”I just collapsed on the floor,” overcome by her emotions.
Gina Kolata “Fewer Doctors Performing Abortions” The Los Angeles Daily Journal Jan 16 1990. Quoted in Charles S. Swindoll Sanctity of Life: The Inescapable Issue. (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1990) p 11
Dr. Philip Ney, who works with abortion providers who have left the business has this to say:
“Some make it, some don’t. The ones who don’t sort of implode. They may revert to drinking, trying to struggle with their anger and guilt, hiding out in a series of rationalizations. They have to deal with all sorts of problems: guilt, shame, anger. They feel they’ve been badly used by their colleagues, doing the dirty work for other doctors. These people also feel they are doing a job for society — that other people are making them do it. They feel used. When we attempted to find out what got people into the abortion industry, they said it was the power and the money that attracted them. The power was power over life and death.”
“Former Abortion Employees Seek Peace After Quitting” Washington Times Feb. 23, 2001
From a report about an abortion’s impact on providers presented to the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians by a veteran abortionist:
16 week unborn baby, an age when a D&E abortion would be performed. D&E abortions are performed up to 24 weeks and sometimes even beyond.
“Many subjects reported serious emotional reactions which produced physiological symptoms, sleep disturbances, effects on personal relationships, and moral anguish…Reactions to viewing the fetus ranged from “I haven’t looked,” to shock, dismay, amazement, disgust, fear, and sadness…Two felt it must eventually damage [the doctor] psychologically…Two respondents described dreams which they had related to the procedure. Both described dreams of vomiting fetuses along with a sense of horror. Other dreams revolved around a need to protect others from viewing fetal parts, dreaming that she herself was pregnant and needed an abortion or was having a baby…The more direct the physical and visual involvement [i.e. nurses and doctors] the more stress experienced.”
Warren Hern and Billie Corrigan “What About Us? Staff Reactions to the D & E Procedure” paper presented to the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians, 26 October 1978, 1, 4, 5, 6. Quoted by Randy Alcorn in Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments
“Never. I would never look down. Some of the nurses watched as he removed the tissue, but I never looked. If I looked, I would never be able to work there [the clinic] again.”
Cynthia Gorney Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars (Simon & Shuster: New York) 1998, p 305
“I’ve taken part in some terminations, but I try to detach myself so I don’t feel so bad.”
Clinical Nurse Shelley Mehigan, who has specialized in family planning for eighteen years
Ann Barrowclough “Abortion: This is What Our Nurses Really Think”
She is not the only abortion provider who has expressed the need to “disassociate” from the abortion procedure. Seeing an unborn baby torn limb from limb can be traumatic, and one way of coping is to emotionally detach.
“[Among abortionists] we’ve had guys drinking too much, taking drugs, even a suicide or two…There have been no studies I know of the problem, but the unwritten kind of statistics we see are alarming.”
Mark Crutcher Access: The Key to Pro-Life Victory p 26 (quoted from The Philadelphia Inquirer August 2, 1981
This goes to show that the emotional strain of tearing apart unborn babies like the one below takes its toll, eventually, on the mental health of providers. See the personal testimonies of former clinic workers to read more about this.
