They said it.
“These providers [abortionists] are strongly opposed by a highly energized minority within medicine, rather passively tolerated by the majority; and actively supported only by a relative few.”
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 160
Share on Facebook“They’re not going to put up any plaques for the abortionist in the medical society or the hospital.”
Abortionist David Bennett
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 159
Share on FacebookCaleb Barrington, who tried to arrange approved abortions for nurses and Army dependents while serving in the military:
“I was the only guy that wasn’t decorated out of my group of OB/GYN’s. It was because of abortion.”
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 156
Share on FacebookDaniel Fieldstone, professor in a medical school,:
“There is virtually no chair [in departments of obstetrics and gynecology] whose career was made around contraception, sterilization, and abortion… These are really regarded as trivial issues in OB/GYN. Molecular genetics, endocrinology, steroid chemistry, cell biology on the academic scale are considered to be more important than this kind of thing.”
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 152
Share on FacebookAn abortionist, after explaining the stigma attached to providing abortions, explain the following:
“Definitely then, and even maybe more so today, the academic people saw you couldn’t afford to get your hands dirty with this stuff unless you were an extremely powerful person and just happened to be enough of humanist…”
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 152
He was talking about how performing abortions could ruin a person’s reputation and lead to persecution.
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On how the medical community did not support those who performed legal abortions after Roe:
“Academic departments of obstetrics and gynecology [did not] welcome skilled abortionists to their ranks. Even though abortion now was legal, a stigma remained on those who had earlier performed illegal abortions.”
Philip Darney, “Training Physicians In Elective Abortion Technique in the United States” in U. Landy and S. Ratnam, editors, Prevention and Treatment of Contraceptive Failure (New York: Plenum, 1986) P133 – 140
Share on FacebookFrom author Carole Joffe in Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995)
She discusses the fact that there are so few abortion providers, and puts forth the theory that it is stigma within the medical community and not pro-life activities or violence, that causes the shortage.
“In seeking to explain this puzzle – a high degree of support for legal abortion by both the general public and the medical specialty most directly affected, yet so little commitment by this specialty to provide necessary services and training – it is tempting to point to the violent wing of the antiabortion movement… There is no question that the climate of violence surrounding abortion facilities, and especially the murders that occurred, have had a chilling effect on abortion provision. But it is a mistake to overemphasize the role of the terrorist wing of the antiabortion movement in the current crisis… It is the medical community itself, and not Operation Rescue, that bears chief responsibility for the present marginalization of abortion provision.”
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From one abortion provider:
“Well, you know, every now and then you get labeled an “abortionist,” which is a term I don’t really enjoy… At a medical meeting, something like that, as soon as you become identified with the [pro-choice] movement, you become an “abortionist.” Now that to me is an unpleasant term… “Abortionist” carries a still unpleasant connotation. It carries the connotation of a sleaze.”
Bob Phillips, M.D.
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 152-153
Share on FacebookSays one abortion provider:
“An abortionist is a despicable person. They assume you did it for the money, you didn’t have the qualifications to be real doctor… You were either a drug addict, an alcoholic, a ne’er-do-well, you couldn’t maintain a practice or you were owned by the Mafia… You weren’t a good person and probably weren’t a good doctor either. At the very least, you are an embarrassment to the medical community.”
David Bennett
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 153
Share on Facebook“Even my own colleagues there at University Hospital, I would be over there delivering a baby, and they would say, “What are you doing here? I didn’t think you delivered babies, I thought you just did abortions.”… Some of my colleagues don’t speak to me because I do abortions.”
Abortionist Eugene Fox, M.D
Carole Joffe. Doctors of Conscience: the Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe Versus Wade (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon press, 1995) 152
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