Category: Truth Aborted

One abortion clinic worker said the following in an interview:

“After the mother had aborted my job was to take the fetus and weigh [it], put it in a bag, like a lunch bag…After everything was weighed and bagged and a disposal card was signed for the fetus I took everything downstairs to the morgue. I took it down in a grocery cart, which was pretty gory, and I just put it in another laundry bag and from there it was thrown in the incinerator.

….I see more of murder the further along they get. Although inside me I know it’s murder from the beginning…”

Yet when asked about what she says to the women she counsels before abortions:

“We have personal biases about a lot of things in our life and these are just things you don’t let conflict with another person’s interest….I’m not there to change her mind.

[Question: Does one ever suggest that a child is killed by abortion?]

I’ve never asked them that question, but from my standpoint from just talking to the girls it’s just something that’s there that’s got to be gotten rid of because it’s in the way, and it is an “it.” It’s not a human being… No, you never throw that out to them. You just use “abortion” and a lot of times I don’t even use the word “abortion.” I use the word “terminate.” When I tell people I do counseling I don’t say “I do abortion counseling or problem pregnancy counseling.” No, it’s just “counseling,” just to lessen the impact of “abortion.”…You don’t say to a girl who’s going through an abortion that it’s murder. Just like delivering the fetuses in the hospital back at —-, I used to get a mother who would say, “What sex is it?”… But I say, “Lay back, you really can’t tell.” These are things you do to relieve the anxiety within the mother.”

James Tunstead Burtechaell, C.S.C. Rachel Weeping: the Case against Abortion (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers, 1982) 135 to 136

She hides from the mothers the reality of the abortion procedure.

The medical textbook Obstetrical Decision-Making makes a similar recommendation:

“It is essential for the gravida [pregnant woman] to be fully informed about alternative resources and options and about the safety and risks of the procedure. Psychosocial assessment and counseling are done at the very first visit [see section on psychosocial assessment]. In addition to the medical history, an in-depth social history, including relationships with others, attitudes about abortion, and support systems must be obtained at this time… No decision should be made by the gravida in haste, under duress, or without adequate time and information. Special attention should be given to feelings of ambivalence, guilt, anger, shame, sadness, and sense of loss…. Patients requesting abortion must also be screened to uncover any serious medical or psychiatric conditions.”

E Friedman, et all.eds. Obstetrical Decision-Making, second edition (Philadelphia: BC Decker Inc., 1987) 30

The vast majority of abortion clinics fail to meet this basic standard.

Read the other quotes in this section to see how counseling is really put into practice at abortion clinics.

Uta Landy, former executive director of National Abortion Federation, acknowledges that women can be deeply ambivalent about having an abortion even when they come to the clinic. She emphasizes that proper counseling is necessary.she states:

“Some women’s feelings about their pregnancy are not simply ambivalent but deeply confused. This confusion is not necessarily expressed in a straightforward manner, but can hide behind such outward behavior as: (1) being uncommunicative, (2) being extremely self-assured, (3) being impatient (how long is this going to take, I have other important things to do), or (4) being hostile (this is an awful place, you are an awful doctor, counselor, nurse; I hate being here).”

Despite Landy’s recommendation, few clinics offer the extensive counseling that even abortion providers say is necessary

Landy, “Abortion Counseling – A New Component of Medical Care” Clinics in Obs/Gyn, 13 (1): 33 – 41 (1986)

A director of the National Abortion Federation, Sylvia Stengle, reveals how common ambivalence and doubt are in aborting women. She says that one in five women having abortions is doing so “in violation of her own moral conscience.” “These woman are “very worrisome subset of our patients. Sometimes, ethically, a provider has to say, “If you think you are doing something wrong, I don’t want to help you do that.”

Junda Woo, “Abortion Doctors’ Patients Broaden Suits” the Wall Street Journal, October 28, 1994, B 12

This was from an article in the Wall Street Journal.

An article in the Chicago Sun-Times quoted a receptionist at an abortion clinic saying the following to a woman was undecided about having an abortion:

“Having a baby is a $410,000 question. Do you have that kind of money to raise a kid?”

Pamela Zeckman, Pamela Warrick et al., “the Abortion Racketeers” Chicago Sun-Times, 13, 17, 19, 12, 29, November 18, 1978

The clinic was later cited for performing abortions on women who weren’t even pregnant.

“Vital signs should be observed regularly, and a Doppler [for listening to the fetal heartbeat] inaudible to the patient should be used at intervals to determine the presence or absence of fetal heart tones… This [informed consent] is a controversial area, but most professionals in the field feel that it is not advisable for patients to view the products of conception, to be told the sex of the fetus, or to be informed of a multiple pregnancy.”

Abortionist Dr. Warren Hern

Dr. Warren Hern Abortion Practice (J.B. Lippencott Company, 1984) pgs 145 and 305

“I have never yet counseled anybody to have the baby. I’m also doing women’s counseling on campus at Albany State, and there I am expected to present alternatives. Whereas at the abortion clinic you aren’t really expected to.”

–abortion counselor

James Tunstead Burtchaell, editor Rachel Weeping and Other Essays About Abortion (New York: Universal Press 1982) p 42 From The Ambivalence of Abortion Linda Bird Francke