Category: Ultrasound Quotes

Randy Alcorn told the following story, which he got from an email:

“Barb came to Cobb Pregnancy Services Tuesday wanting a verification of pregnancy so she could get an abortion. She was 16 weeks pregnant. Janet, her counselor, put in a video [The Eclipse of Reason] that showed the abortion procedure for a baby of this age. When Janet returned to the room, Barb was looking down and said “I can’t have no baby.”

Janet shared her regret concerning an abortion she’s lived with for more than 25 years. She then got permission to call me to do an ultrasound and show Barb her baby. The little girl was most cooperative to show even her mom’s untrained eye that she was alive, very active and doing well insider. She opened and closed her mouth, had hiccups, laid-back as if in a beach chair, stretching her little legs. She even held up hands so Barb could count her fingers

Barb was visibly touched. When the scan was over, I asked Barb what her plans were. She replied “I am going to have my baby.” I asked if the scan had made a difference, she said, “Big time. I just came in here to get a pregnancy verification so I could go have an abortion.”

Both pictures are  sixteen weeks.

Audrey Stout, Marietta Georgia, e-mail to Randy Alcorn February 12, 2000

Randy Alcorn “Pro-life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments” (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 2000) 199

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It is no surprise that many abortion clinics turn the ultrasound screen away from women who are having abortions, and I pro-choice group such as Planned Parenthood vigorously fight legislation that would require a woman to be offered the chance to see her baby on the sonogram. Planned Parenthood fights laws that say a woman has the right to see her ultrasound if she chooses to, even though she is not forced to. This is because Planned Parenthood is vigorously opposed to women having enough information to make an informed decision. Rather, they are willing to pressure women into abortions by withholding information, as this former Planned Parenthood clinic worker describes.

Sidewalk counselor and manager of a crisis pregnancy center Roderick P Murphy tells the following story:

“Anya (pseudonym) was in the abortion facility next door being prepared for an abortion when a Planned Parenthood staffer mistakenly allowed a corner of the ultrasound screen to be seen by her. When the client saw her baby moving on the screen, she panicked, jumped off the table and ran out of the building where our outside counselor steered her toward our office. We counseled her and showed her a full ultrasound screen of her baby and she wept with relief. She kept crying and saying “I almost killed my baby. I almost killed my baby.”

Roderick P Murphy. Stopping Abortions at Death’s Door (Southbridge, Massachusetts: Taig Publishing 2009) P194

Read more stories of minds changed by seeing ultrasounds.

And read about Abby Johnson, clinic manager who converted to the pro-life position after watching an abortion on ultrasound in her facility.

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Katyia Rowe was 20 weeks pregnant when her ultrasound showed problems with her baby. The doctors told her that he had a brain disorder and would not live very long, and, if he did, he would need around the clock nursing care. She considered abortion, but changed her mind when she saw her son, who she named Lucian, smile on the ultrasound screen.

‘If he could smile and play and feel then despite his disabilities he deserved to enjoy whatever life he had left, no matter how short. Just because his life would be shorter or different, didn’t mean he didn’t deserve to experience it….

I was told he would never walk or talk yet the scans showed him constantly wriggling and moving. 

‘As I watched I knew that while I was carrying him he still had a quality of life and it was my duty as a mother to protect that no matter how long he had left, he deserved to live….

‘I researched all his disabilities to prepare myself fully for his needs. I never had a moment of doubt. I only had to look at the scan pictures of him enjoying life in the womb to know I was doing the right thing by giving him a chance.

‘Not knowing how long he would live meant we were determined to enjoy him for as long as we could. We learned he loved the shower and would kick when I sprayed the water on my tummy.

‘As he grew bigger I could see his little feet and hands prodding through my bump when he wriggled. He may not have been born but he was already our son and I took each movement as a sign we had done the right thing.

‘I would talk to him and play him music because I wanted him to experience as much as possible.’

Lucian could not swallow amniotic fluid like a normal baby, so Katyia had to submit to painful procedures to drain the fluid. However, she never wavered in her desire to give birth to her son.

‘It was agony and I knew some people questioned if it was worth putting myself through all this for a severely disabled baby that may not live for long.

‘But I never ever thought like that. As a mother you will do anything for your child and for me I became a mother as soon as I fell pregnant, that job had started already.’

When Lucian was born, the doctrs placed him in her arms.

“It was without doubt the happiest moment of my life. Lucian could have died at anytime in my womb but he held on long enough for us to meet properly. 

‘My son looked utterly perfect. 

‘The love and joy I felt the moment they put Lucian in my arms told me it had all been worth it.’ 

… ‘I thought I didn’t want to be a mother but Lucian taught me it is the most wonderful job in the world and I will always be grateful for that.’

 

Larisa Brown “The 3D scan of a disabled baby’s smile that convinced his mother not to abort him – and why she is grateful she was able to cuddle him with joy for a few precious hours” Mail Online, Jan 14, 2013

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262242/Mother-took-heartbreaking-decision-severely-disabled-baby-aborted-seeing-smile-3D-scan-picture.html#ixzz2I2VI66rX

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A married woman who became pregnant at age 39 after she had already had all the children she wanted weighed the abortion decision and decided she would probably keep the baby. But:

“Unfortunately, she says, her maternal instincts did not respond to reason: when a young friend placed her baby in her arms, she found herself looking with distaste into “a little scrunched face inspiring no tenderness, only intense tedium at the thought of tending him. What was I going to do with the baby I couldn’t return to his mother?” She arranged to have amniocentesis once they got to England, though she was not sure – despite her reservations – what it would cost her emotionally to have an abortion if something were wrong. When told she had as much chance of having a miscarriage from the amniocentesis as she did, at her age, of having a Down syndrome child, she hoped for the miscarriage: “That is until, lying on the table where the procedure was to take place, I saw the ultrasound scan on a television monitor above me reveal the perfectly shaped head of the child I carried. I wanted that baby!”

Faith Abbott “a Tale of Two Women” Human Life Review, Spring 1993

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Karla Dial wrote an article in Citizen Magazine about how ultrasounds of unborn babies affect parents, including those parents who are considering abortions.

According to Robert Wolfson, M.D., Ph.D., the Colorado Springs, Colo., perinatologist:

“It [ultrasound] creates a commitment to the pregnancy and the individual on board from both parents,” Wolfson told Citizen. “The mother can feel the baby, but the father needs a photograph to form a relationship with that child. Imagine putting that picture on your desk and looking at it every day.

“It’s all about the fact that you can fall in love with your child before birth. People know intuitively that there is power in that.”

Also from the article:

“This is a ‘Wow’ kind of machine,” agreed Medical Director Dr. Bill Cutrer. “The kinds of images we can get on the real early pregnancies at seven weeks, eight weeks, nine or 10, are just breathtaking. There’s no one that leaves with any doubt this is a baby.” ….

“They don’t want them to go to Planned Parenthood, where they’ll get their full range of options,” Alison Herwitt, NARAL Pro-Choice America’s director of government relations, told Newhouse News Service of the bill’s sponsors. “They just want them to go to crisis pregnancy centers, where women will be exposed to this weapon at taxpayers’ expense.”

Is an ultrasound machine a weapon? Planned Parenthood routinely turns the ultrasound screen away from women and discourages or outright forbids them from looking at it when they come in for abortions. The organization fights laws that say a woman must be offered a chance to view it– they oppose allowing a woman to see an ultrasound even when it is her choice to do so. Is informing a woman about what’s going on in her body wrong? Or is it better to keep women in the dark? What about an ultrasound, which merely reveals the baby that is already there, makes it a weapon?

A woman who was considering abortion after a pregnancy resulting from rape agreed to a free ultrasound at a pregnancy center:

““She was blinking. She was just hanging out, looking around, sucking on her thumb,” Oliver told Citizen. “It was so realistic, so lifelike. It looks like you can just reach right in there and pick up the baby.

“I know they have a heartbeat at 4 to 6 weeks, but it still doesn’t feel as real to you until you see a human. It amazed me.”

She kept her baby.

“I never thought I could love or bond with a child [who] was conceived under such horrible circumstances, but that’s where we don’t give God enough credit,” Oliver said. “I look at her, and I don’t even see him. She’s beautiful and perfect.”

Karla Dial “Bringing Good Things to Life”Citizen June 2003

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Abortionist Dr. Joseph Randall:

“I think the greatest thing that got to us was the ultrasound. At that time, the ultrasound, or soundwave picture which was moving, called a “real-time ultrasound,” showed the baby on TV. The baby really came alive on TV and was moving. And that picture, that picture of the baby on ultrasound bothered me more than anything else… We lost two nurses. They couldn’t take looking at.”

Dr. Randall eventually stopped performing abortions. To read his full testimony, go here.

“Meet the Abortion Providers” Videotape, 1989

For more information about how ultrasounds change the minds and hearts of women seeking abortions and sometimes even abortion providers, go here.

 

 

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An article in ObGyn News describes the difficulty of using an ultrasound  machine in an abortion clinic:

After mentioning that women should not be shown the ultrasound because it may upset them,

“Staff members also may be affected by sonographic images and may need opportunities for venting their feelings and reconfirming their priorities…”

“Warns of Negative Psychological Impact of Sonography an Abortion” ObGyn News, February 15 – 28, 1986

Rachel M MacNair, PhD. Achieving Peace in the Abortion War (New York: iUniverse, 2009) page 59

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On November 2nd, 2012 the organization 40 Days for Life, which arranges prayer campaigns and protests outside abortion clinics, told the following stories:

In Michigan:

A woman visited the pregnancy help center just down the street from the 40 Days for Life vigil – after “a nice man” praying at the abortion center gave her a coupon for a free ultrasound.

She said she had gone into the abortion facility and planned to have an abortion. They did an ultrasound first – and she asked to see the screen. “Is that my baby’s head?” she asked. She was told, “Yes, but it’s just a blob.”

They started the procedure, but it was painful for her and she made them stop. They let her off the table so she could calm down a bit before trying again. But once off the table, she had made up her mind not to go through with it.

A few days later, she showed up at the pregnancy center. She and the ultrasound tech watched as the baby seemed to wave, jump and turn. They listened to the baby’s heartbeat … and tears of joy fell from her eyes. She was so happy to have this precious child safe and secure.

Here is a picture of her unborn baby, the picture that changed her  mind:

Another story came from Bakersfield California:

A woman had made the long drive from another county for an abortion appointment. She was one of the first to arrive that day, walking past the vigil participants and into the building.

As she was leaving, the volunteers noted that she might have been inside long enough for the abortion. They also noted that she was crying, so one of them asked her, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I couldn’t do it,” the woman said. “They were doing an ultrasound, so I asked if I could see it. At first they refused, telling me ‘you don’t really want to see it.’ But I insisted ‘yeah, I do want to see it, because if I can see it … maybe I won’t do it.’”

She was right. Once she saw her nine week baby on the ultrasound screen, she knew that she couldn’t go through with the abortion.

 

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