Category: Abortion Counseling

Abby Johnson discusses pre-abortion “counseling” at her clinic

Seven-week-old unborn baby – most abortions happen around this time
Seven-week-old unborn baby – most abortions happen around this time

Former clinic worker an abortion clinic director Abby Johnson shared the following on her public Facebook page on March 24, 2014:

When I worked at Planned Parenthood, we had a training program for our “abortion counselors.”

It consisted of three main parts.

1. Make sure all forms are signed by the patient to relieve us of any liability.

2. Do not discuss options with women coming in. We are there to affirm their decision to abort, not to confuse them with other options.

3. Do not discuss any emotional or physical risks associated with the abortion procedure. We do not want to “scare them.”

This is the real war on women.

Abby Johnson is not the only clinic worker to discuss this. Many other clinic workers have said similar things, and many postabortion women have described getting this type of biased and deceptive counseling. Surveys of women allow that abortions also verify this.

 

Share on Facebook

Abby Johnson’s abortion counselor told her she’d had 9 abortions

I had a surgical abortion when I was 20 years old. I don’t remember many details. But what I do remember was not pleasant.

I don’t remember how far along I was in my pregnancy. I do know that I paid $500.00 for my abortion.

I went through a group counseling session with several other women. My “counselor” told me that she had 9 previous abortions. I think she said it to make us feel better somehow…and it worked.

Abby Johnson “Abby Johnson: Counselor for My Abortion Had 9 Abortions” LifeNews.com 4/23/12

feet of unborn baby at just 7 weeks after conception
feet of unborn baby at just 7 weeks after conception

Abby would later go on to have another abortion, then become an employee at Planned Parenthood and the director of one of their largest abortion clinics for a number of years. She would eventually leave and become a pro-life speaker. Read about why she left here. 

Share on Facebook

Clinic worker: many women have 10+ abortions

A woman was unsure about having an abortion. An abortion clinic worker told her the following:

“I have had many abortions. I have have [sic] many close friends who have had many abortions. Working at a clinic we have a lot of women who have had 10+ abortions. I have a child, some of them have children and none have had problems becoming pregnant because of the abortions. You are more likely to have problems with fertility after giving birth than having a properly performed abortion.”

LiveJournal Entry, can be found here. 

From an abortion at 7 weeks
Share on Facebook

Unborn baby at 3 months = “clump of cells” says abortion clinic

A woman was counseled at an abortion clinic and told that her baby at 3 months was “just a clump of cells.”

“When I saw that a 3-month-old “clump of cells” had fingers and toes and was a tiny, perfectly formed baby, I became really hysterical.

I’ve been lied to and misled, and I’m sure thousands of other women are being just as poorly informed and badly served. To prove it, John [her husband] and I visited most every clinic in Cleveland. I pretended I was pregnant and asked for guidance.

What we heard was incredible. One counselor told us the fetus did not begin to resemble human being until 7 months, another said 5 months, and so it went.”

Rockmore, “Are You Sorry You Had an Abortion?”

David C Reardon Aborted Women: Silent No More (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway books, 1987) 250

Foot at 12 weeks
Share on Facebook

Former clinic worker: “Ellen”

And Then There Were None, a ministry that helps former clinic workers, told the following story in one of their emails:

“Ellen” recalled her time working at Planned Parenthood.  Like many others, she felt uncomfortable with her job there, but it paid the bills and offered the benefits she needed.  She was hired on as a patient educator and was reprimanded for quietly giving patients information on adoption services and resource centers in the counseling rooms, because she was not pushing the sale of abortion onto women who weren’t sure what they were going to do. “It took a huge physical toll,” Ellen said. “I would always come home from work and cry.”

The majority of abortions are done at this time or later
Share on Facebook

Use of term “baby” makes Abortion providers uncomfortable

Pro-choice author Carole Joffe on how abortion providers and patients describe the unborn baby:

“Counselors and clinicians tend to use the terms “pregnancy” and “fetus”; in contrast, many patients use the term baby, which makes some providers uncomfortable. Similarly, how should providers respond to the occasional patient who asks to see her ultrasound before her abortion, or, afterward, the product of conception (another term used far more by providers than by patients?)

Carole Joffe Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: the Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2009) 127-128

This brief quote reveals that many women having abortions even the child they are about to destroy is a baby, and also that clinic workers use terms that are deceptive. It is also clear that it is not normal practice in abortion clinics to show the woman the ultrasound, and that clinic workers questioned whether she should be allowed to see it. In the section on “abortion counseling” you will read many quotes from abortion providers admitting that they never show the woman the ultrasound before her abortion and that if she asked, they often refused.

Share on Facebook

Abortion clinic workers given instructions at odds with clinic advertising

One Chicago abortion clinic said the following on a brochure aimed at women considering abortions at the clinic:

“From admission to recovery, patient ease and comfort are first considerations. She is encouraged to ask questions, share feelings or misgivings.”

These were the actual instructions given to the clinic workers:

“1. Don’t tell [the] patient. The abortion will hurt.

2. Don’t discuss [the abortion] procedure or the instruments to be used in any detail.

3. Don’t answer too many questions.

Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick “The Abortion Profiteers” Chicago Sun-Times November 12, 1978

This article was from a long time ago but things in the abortion clinics haven’t changed much. Read about what one former Planned Parenthood clinic worker says about how the clinic counseled their patients.

Share on Facebook

LA Times Quotes Clinic Worker Lying about Unborn Baby

In an article in The LA Times an abortion counselor tells a reporter:

“If they truly believe they are killing a baby, we’re not going to do the abortion for them.”

 

6 weeks

Later, the LA Times reporter observed her speaking with a patient. She told the girl this about her baby, 

“It’s completely formed about nine weeks. Yours is more like a chicken yolk.”

 

“Offering Abortion, Rebirth” LA Times Nov 11, 2005

7 weeks
Share on Facebook

Clinic Counselor on how to think of abortion

When a woman in an abortion clinic voiced her concern that abortion might be killing, her counselor said

“Don’t think of it is killing. Think of it is taking blood out of your uterus to get your periods going again.”

Dr. Monte Harris Liebman and Jolie Siebold Zimmer “The Psychological Sequelae Of Abortion: Facts and Fallacy” in David Mall and Dr. Walter Watts, editors The Psychological Aspects of Abortion (Washington DC: University Publications of America, 1979) 133

Share on Facebook

Qualifications for clinic counselors – must have had an abortion

Former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson describes how Harvey, an abortion provider, hired counselors for the abortion clinic he was setting up in New York City in the 1970s:

“When Harvey moved into the massive New York market he was naturally too busy to do the counseling himself and hired counselors who met only two criteria: they had to be 21 or older, and they had to have had an abortion themselves. Nothing else. Education, degrees, experience were inconsequential to him.”

Bernard N Nathanson, M.D. with Richard N Ostling. Aborting America (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1979) 115

Share on Facebook