Category: Abortion Counseling

Former clinic worker Luhra Tivis discusses her role as an abortion counselor. Tivis was pro-choice when she started working at the clinic, but became uneasy with abortion based on the experiences she had working there.

“They decided they would train me to answer the phone. So I thought they were going to tell me how they wanted the information sheet filled out, and how to keep the phone record, and this and that. But what I was handed instead was a packet of information, materials to study, on how to be a high-pressure salesperson over the phone — you know, like telemarketing. How to convince somebody to buy your product. There was nothing in the material that had anything to do with the medical profession or helping women. I was very puzzled as to why they would be doing this. I hadn’t found out how lucrative it was yet. So I studied, and I tried to answer the phone the way they wanted me to, even up to the very end.”

Quoted by Rachel MacNair in Achieving Peace in the Abortion War” by Rachel M MacNair, Ph.D., published by the Feminism & Nonviolence Studies Association January 2009. http://www.fnsa.org/apaw/

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One ultrasound technician discussed her experience working in abortion clinics. After mentioning how abortion workers told her to turn the ultrasound screen away from the patient considering abortion, she states:

“The guiding principle for the abortion industry is [that] it will decide what information is best for women to learn.”

Shari Richard, letter in Martinsburg Morning Journal. Quoted in “Celebrate Life” Newsletter of American Life League Oct 1991

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Former clinic worker Luhra Tivis, who worked for Dr. George Tiller, stated:

“We were told specifically to coax [pregnant women to have an abortion] by any verbal means available.”

Quoted by Cal Thomas, “Celebrate Life” Oct 1991

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Pro-choice author Jennifer Baumgardner, who started the t-shirt campaign “I Had An Abortion” told the story of an abortion patient in her book “Abortion & Life” (New York, NY: Akashic Books, 2008):

“I went with my boyfriend and friend to Planned Parenthood. I think I was headed into my eighth week at that point. I went into a room for pre-abortion counseling- five quick, terse questions. I had assumed that I was going to get a half-hour and I would finally be able to tell someone or talk to someone about how freaked out I was, but I didn’t get to.”

This appears on page 127

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From one author who observed the daily operation of an abortion clinic:

“Center staff members commonly said “the pregnancy,” “the tissue,” “the products of conception.” “Fetal tissue” was the most explicit term I heard health workers use with clients.”

Wendy Simonds. Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ) 1996. p 80

 

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Illustrating the fact that women are often ambivalent about getting an abortion, and that counseling is needed, a reporter who observed in an abortion clinic says:

“On this day at the surgical unit of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, in central Philadelphia, 21 people will have abortions. Another two dozen pregnant women will come in to view a video and to “start the clock” on their state-mandated 24-hour waiting period. Most will come back for abortions. Some will never be heard from again…Sometimes, says clinic manager Paula Monastersky, a woman will just get up and leave. Occasionally, a woman will even be undressed and on the table, moments away from the doctor’s instruments, and she’ll change her mind.”

. Linda Feldmann “Abortion: Uneasy Day at the Clinic” Christian Science Monitor, Jan 22 1998, Vol. 90, Issue 39

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“Since Planned Parenthood is the foremost abortion provider in the US, they have a responsibility to tell women the truth about fetal development and subsequent risks involved in pursuing abortion as an option. I know for a fact they do not.”

Former Planned Parenthood counselor

“Federal Register” Vol 53, no. 21. Feb 2 at 397

However:

An article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution discusses a proposed law that would require abortion clinics to offer information about abortion’s risks and fetal development to women. Executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia Becky Rafter explained why NARAL opposed the law:

“It’s a ruse to say that clinics do not already have informed consent.”

Carlos Campos “Abortion waiting period approved; Aim to let women change their minds, advocates say” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, GA), March 5, 2005 pA1

She stressed that the law was not needed

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The same author goes on to state:

“I sensed that no matter how straightforward Center women were with me or with each other about resisting the language barriers erected by antis, they seemed uneasy when clients used tainted words. I found this uneasiness to be contagious; for instance, Hallie and I were silent when the client asked us whether digoxin [a chemical used in second and third trimester abortions] was what “killed the baby.” Center workers found themselves in an awkward position….how might feminists reappropriate tainted language?”

Wendy Simonds. Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ) 1996. p 80

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An abortion clinic receptionist (Concord Medical Center) was asked if the counselors at the clinic where she worked had formal training:

Her answer:

“No, most people that counsel there did not have much training, before they started working there, that’s the way it worked.”

The Board of Review of the Illinois Department of Employment Security Case # 92-L50928

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The Department of Health and Human Services, in its “Counseling Adolescents in Reproductive Health Care Settings” notes that when a client experiences anxiety and guilt over her decision to abort, “the counselor may be able to reduce the intensity of the feelings or the possibility of their interfering with commitment to the plans.”

The Department of Health and Human Services, in its Counseling Adolescents in Reproductive Health Care Settings, 1980. Rachel M. MacNair, PhD, Finding Peace in the Abortion War: Predictions on Possible Social Impacts of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Cognitive Dissonance as Structural Stressors

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