David B Paintin: “I think 3 days’ delay between the assessment and doing the abortion is absolutely vital.”
Peter Diggory: “Yes, because occasionally a woman says she has changed her mind and wants to go on with the pregnancy. That is evidence that the counseling has been done well.”
David B Paintin: “Exactly. Women don’t change their minds during the assessment session, but only in the ensuing 2 or 3 days.”
Abortion: Medical Progress and Social Implications, CIBA Foundation Symposium 115 (London: Pitman, 1985) 13
These abortionists actually seem to care about the women coming to them for abortions, and want them to be sure about their choices. It is rare to see abortionists this concerned for their patients. But the words of these two doctors show that a waiting period is good medical practice.
“The abortionist knows that if the mother knew there was a heartbeat or saw the fetus (baby) on the ultrasound, she would probably change her mind about the abortion. When an ultrasound was performed at the abortion clinic, the screen was turned away from the mother and the sound was turned off so the mother could not hear or see it.”
Brenda Pratt-Shafer, David Shafer What the Nurse Saw: Eyewitness to Abortion (Mustang, Oklahoma: Tate Publishing & Enterprise, LLC, 2016) 29
One woman went to Planned Parenthood and was told she was pregnant. This is the “counseling” she received:
At her initial appointment with Planned Parenthood, she and her boyfriend were told they couldn’t have a baby because “you’re too young, you have no money, you aren’t married.
They said we couldn’t tell our parents because it would disappoint them. I said I would consider placing the baby for adoption. The counselor’s response was, ‘Oh, my God, you could never do that. That’s the cruelest thing you could ever do to a baby.’ I started crying and said, ‘I’m adopted.’ Her response was, ‘I don’t care; that’s still the cruelest thing to do to a child.’
Dunn said she and her boyfriend were given no information about fetal development, alternatives to abortion or the physical and emotional risks of abortion.
“There were no connotations of anything bad about the abortion, only about having the baby. I was crying and pacing around the room, and the counselor was yelling at me — she raised her voice — ‘You can’t have a baby.’ … There was not a drop of compassion; she was very cold.”
“Woman Silenced at New Jersey Senate Hearing Shares Her Story” Found here. Visited August 16, 2018
Victoria from Pennsylvania told the story of her third abortion. Her Planned Parenthood counselor told her her child was a “blob of tissue”, even though she was 4 months along:
“My last abortion was done at four months. I felt there was no way out, I felt trapped. I was dropped off at Planned Parenthood, and went in alone, and petrified.
At that abortion mill, I was told that “it’s the best thing to do, you won’t feel anything” and it’s only “a blob of tissue.” The nurse escorted me to the “procedure room.” The room was cold, with a distinct smell. While waiting for the pain meds to kick in, I saw in the corner a large canister with a long tube and attached on the end was a very sharp object. Then I heard the sucking machine. The doctor took that tube with the sharp object attached and shoved it up inside of me with such force that I couldn’t breathe. The pain medicine never kicked in. I was crying, telling them the pain medicine isn’t helping. I felt everything. I begged the nurse to help me, to stop. The pain was unbelievable! No one listened. They just continued to suck my baby through that tube into pieces.”
Janet Morana Shockwaves: Abortions Wider Circle of Victims (New Jersey: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2017) 21 – 22
“I was supporting Greenpeace and I didn’t eat meat. I was vegetarian because I thought it was appalling and barbaric to kill an animal… So I stopped eating meat. I supported Greenpeace and I was against the war in Vietnam…
When all my friends – who were involved in these same things – found themselves pregnant, they all had abortions… All my friends told me how “far out” abortion was. One girl had had an abortion while tripping with LSD to rock music, and she said it was really far out. I didn’t know anything about abortion; but they said it was a step forward for humanity and a step forward for women. So I thought when I got pregnant, well, this must be something that’s consistent with all of these compassionate people’s values, or they wouldn’t have abortions.
When I went for counseling, I was told I had three choices. The first was to have the baby, keep it, and be tied down for the rest of my life and lose my boyfriend. The second one was to have the baby, give it up for adoption (which was emotionally impossible), and never get over it. These sounded like bad choices.
Choice number three was to have a safe, simple, legal abortion, go on with my life, keep my boyfriend, and go on like it never happened. This sounded like a good choice.
I asked a little bit about the baby. They said, “Oh, it’s not a baby. It’s an indeterminable cluster of cells.”
Years later:
“So one day in my third pregnancy I went to the mailbox, and there was a mailing from the National Right to Life Committee. I didn’t know who that was. I don’t know who put me on the mailing list. But I got an envelope, and this picture was inside. And it said, “Did you know this is how big you were when you were 11 weeks old?”
Now, the baby I aborted was 11 weeks old, and can you imagine what this did to me when I saw this baby with the hands and face, sucking his thumb? And they told me it was a cluster of cells… And I was supporting Greenpeace and not eating meat because I was so compassionate and couldn’t kill a cow.
At this point I came face-to-face with the fact that I killed my baby. It was a devastating moment in my life…..
I can try and talk to other women, other young girls so they can see the truth. So that they’ll know. Because if there had been somebody outside that hospital the day I walked in, if they had had a picture of this baby, I would not have had an abortion, and my life would be so much better – and I wouldn’t be obsessed with who that baby was, because I’d be loving that child.”
Paula Ervin Women Exploited: The Other Victims of Abortion (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Inc., 1985) 50-55
A woman named Meredith, who took the abortion pill, says that the “counseling” she received was a joke:
“That was really a joke. We didn’t talk about planning. And I certainly wouldn’t call our conversation counseling. It was just an opportunity for the clinic to take care of a few technicalities – like signing a liability release form and an insurance waiver. I feel that if someone would’ve taken the time to talk to me, if only for a moment or two, I would’ve been able to make a more responsible decision. As it was, I was on an emotional runaway train, and the clinic staff merely added fuel to the fire.”
George Grant The Quick and the Dead: RU-486and the New Chemical Warfareagainst Your Family (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1991) 24
“I was told that my baby was not really a live baby, but that it was only a blob of flesh, and since it really wasn’t alive, I wouldn’t be killing anything. Later, when I saw the sonogram of my second living child, I saw that he was VERY ALIVE . . . and the guilt overwhelmed me.”
AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF OF 3,348 WOMEN INJURED BY ABORTION AND THE JUSTICE FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS FOR AFFIRMANCE
WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH, et al., Petitioners, v. JOHN HELLERSTEDT, M.D., COMMISSIONER, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES, et al., Respondents.
From a woman who counseled women in an abortion clinic:
It was redundant and boring repeating the same information about what the procedure entails and how to take care of yourself after, filling out the same paperwork over and over. It was depressing when someone slipped through my fingers who seemed to require a kind of help I didn’t know how to or was unable to give. Mostly this was due to time constraints and the once-and-fast nature of the kind of counseling I was doing. Sometimes it was because I simply didn’t have the backbone of knowledge to readily provide resources for housing, financial aid or long-term emotional counseling, ect…
Infertile Abortion Counselor Babies or Not MAY 01, 2006
In an interview with Judith Arcana, the pro-choice interviewer admits that women sometimes struggle emotionally after their abortions. But she does not think that abortion clinics should do more counseling. She says:
“….does the fact that women can find abortion difficult to decide on, and dwell on their decision afterwards, mean that we should respond in this in some way, by for example providing more counselling for women? I don’t believe that it does.”
“The councilor [sic] asked me if I wanted an abortion & I said yes. I was not told what would happen during the procedure. . . . He told me where to sign. Even when I was in the little room to get the ultrasound so they could see how far along I was, the girl didn’t speak to me. She was talking to a girl, training her I guess, and I looked at the monitor & asked ‘Where’s the heartbeat?’ All she said was ‘There isn’t one.’ And she turned the monitor so I couldn’t see and ignored me the rest of the time.”
AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH, et al., Petitioners, v. JOHN HELLERSTEDT, M.D., COMMISSIONER OF THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES, et al., OF 3,348 WOMEN INJURED BY ABORTION AND THE JUSTICE FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS FOR AFFIRMANCE
New research shows that a preborn baby’s heart starts beating as early as 16 days after conception.
Before this new research, the time given for the babies heartbeat was about 21 days. Here you can see a video of a baby’s heart beating at four weeks after conception. Surgical abortions are usually not performed until the seventh week. It is impossible that her baby did not have a heartbeat.
