They said it.
The study indicates that women with a prior history of abortion are twice as likely to use alcohol, five times more likely to use illicit drugs, and 10 times more likely to use marijuana during the first pregnancy they carry to term compared to other women delivering their first pregnancies.
“History of induced abortion in relation to substance abuse during pregnancies carried to term” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology December 2002; 187 (5)
Share on FacebookCheryl Sullenger wrote a book about Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s clinic. She tells the story of Davida Clark, an African American teen who came to Gosnell for an abortion
“She remembered… the receptionist that seemed only to care about taking money. As her name was called and she was moved into the abortion room, she said she saw drugged women who looked “half–dead” languishing about the clinic. She noticed there was blood all over the chairs and on the floor.
“But I just kept going,” she said.
Davida was hooked up to an IV and her midsection strapped with a fetal heart monitor. That’s when she saw Gosnell for the first time. But by then Davida had had enough. She told Gosnell that she had changed her mind, but Gosnell would have none of that.
Davida recalled, “He’s like, “Stop being a little baby,” and he’s pounding on my legs. “Stop being a little baby! Stop being a little baby!” And now, I’m outnumbered. All these women came in and I’m like tied to the bed, and the next thing I know, I was out of it.”
When she came to, Davida was groggy from the drugs, but she knew she wasn’t pregnant anymore. She began to repeatedly sob, “I want my baby!” But the women who worked in the clinic simply ignored her.
Today, Davida is unable to bear any more children and thinks with grief of the baby she should have had, but didn’t.”
Cheryl Sullenger The Trial of Kermit Gosnell (World Ahead Press, 2017) 38
Share on FacebookLinda Huffsteller, who had an abortion at 14, says:
“I was only 14 years old acting out of fear and desperation. I didn’t even give them an I.D. because I didn’t have any. . . . All I had to do is sign in. No one even talked to me until I had a gown on and was ready to wheel me to the OR room. During my abortion I was told by the nurses that I almost didn’t make it and there was complications. I was told I would be in and out within an hour or two. I was in recovery for the next 10 hours and my boyfriend (now my husband) wasn’t kept informed why I wasn’t coming out into the waiting room where he had to wait. They even locked the doors due to closing time.”
Amicus brief submitted in the Supreme Court case WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH v. HELLERSTEDT
Share on FacebookA pro-choice woman wrote the following after having an abortion:
“I’ll never forget being with three women, or six women actually. When three of them woke up, they had a general anesthesia, three of them said such things as, “Where’s my baby? Is my baby dead? Will I ever have any other babies?”… I don’t think we should minimize… [that] abortion does produce some concern on the part of women and we need to recognize it and say it “Yes, abortion kills a living human fetus.”… And I think you have to call it for what it is and there’s a sense of loss.”
Quoted by Kristin Luker, Interview 118, Archived at the Murray Research Center, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p 21
Eileen L McDonagh Breaking Abortion Deadlock: from Choice to Consent (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) 186
Share on FacebookLisa Arnold compiled the following statistics in 2002 and 2003 from over 200 postabortion women. She works in a crisis pregnancy center, and this is taken from the women who came to her who had past abortions.
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My decision to abort had a great impact on my life |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| agree: 88% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| disagree: 7% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
not sure: 5%
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A woman named Mae writes about her abortion:
“… Despite my partner having used contraceptives, I was expecting a baby.
My first feeling was one of great happiness, swiftly followed by confusion; what would this mean to my partner? Our relationship was still in its early stages; who knew if there was a future in it? We were still finding out about each other; I didn’t want to force him into committing himself to me permanently…
I rang my partner and asked to see him. When he arrived, I told him my news: “I’m pregnant.” His response was matter-of-fact. “Well, whatever you do about it, it’s your decision.”
I have since realized that this kind of statement simply stems from a man shrugging off any personal responsibility. Rarely does it spring from respect for a woman’s autonomy.
I couldn’t pretend it was what I wanted to hear. At a time like that, I wanted him to show some emotion. I think it was fair enough to give me back the responsibility, but after all, the baby was his as well as mine.
His detachment only added to my confusion.…
Somehow, the path ahead of me was narrowing into a single channel – that of abortion. All the circumstances pointed to it. I had little to offer a baby in terms of a home or a father; although I hoped to keep my relationship with the baby’s father. So why didn’t I call a halt there and then? I could’ve said, “Wait a minute…”
But I can see now that there wasn’t any space to reflect. The clock was ticking by and I was told, “You’ve only got so many days in which to make a decision.”…
Wanting to please my partner… I listened carefully for nuances in our conversations about the situation. There were hints that an abortion would be best at this stage: he would say, “It’s still early in our relationship, so it’s your decision,” which I chose to interpret as meaning that he saw future for us. Left to myself, I made the abortion decision on an “information basis”, determining my future by sifting the information I had received.”
After the abortion:
“The relationship with my partner lasted another 18 months to two years… The fact that our relationship became destructive to me reinforces my realization that I made the wrong decision over the abortion… He just wasn’t the supportive, loving person I thought him to be at first.”
Melanie Symonds, Phyllis Bowman And Still They Weep: Personal Stories of Abortion (The SPUC Educational Research Trust, 1996) 27, 28, 29
Share on FacebookDr. Henry Morgantaler did thousands of abortions in Canada. He comments on women’s pain during abortions:
“While pain is generally minimal as a result of local anesthesia of the cervix, it may be felt as intense or severe by a small minority. This could be due to a partial ineffectiveness of the local anesthesia or be a reflection of the pain threshold of the patient. People’s susceptibility to pain varies enormously and some people withstand even small amounts of pain very poorly.
It is well-known that when anxiety is high, pain will be felt more intensely.”
Henry Morgentaler Abortion and Contraception (New York: Beaufort Books, Inc., 1982) 81
Share on FacebookA woman who had an abortion says:
“I was informed that it wasn’t going to hurt and it was the most painful thing I ever experience[d] to date. I remember the nurses telling me to be quiet so that I don’t scare the other patients. I had no clue what type of abortion I was having. . . . I was told that this was the best option for my situation and it was the worst choice I ever made.”
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.
Share on FacebookAn abortionist looks back on her own abortion:
“I felt fine when I walked in the room, laid down, and then all of a sudden I had pain that I didn’t know was possible. Labor pain starts slowly and goes on and on and on. This is much shorter. You feel absolutely fine, and then you suddenly feel attacked by this person between your legs.”
Abortionist “Clara”
Sharyn Jackson “Undercover” The Santa Fe Reporter, October 5, 2011
Share on FacebookAuthor Luc Boltanski interviewed a woman named Lillian, about what happened after her abortion:
“Afterword, you’re sort of disgusted with the guy, so you don’t want to see him, I don’t know why, but…in my case, with the one I was with at the time, and he was serious, I was fed up with him, sexually I mean, with him, I couldn’t do it anymore. It was purely sexual. I mean that having sex was painful; it really hurt, it was really so uninteresting that I don’t even understand how girls my age who are at that point and think about nothing but sex… It’s so worthless, really there’s no point, because for me, it hurt, it really was bad, but okay, fine, if it doesn’t hurt them, I have the one friend who went through the same thing and had the same reaction as me, but not the other one, she kept on liking it. For me, it’s awful, it hurts, it’s not even fun at all. But the problem is that the guys ask you for it. Indeed, it turns me off, it’s really a chore, but he keeps asking for it. If he doesn’t get it he’s in a bad mood… Well, I can do this to him for a month, but at the end of the month he’ll say to me: “Come on, we better do something about this”, because every night I’m looking for an excuse, because it turns me off, I don’t want it.”
Luc Boltanski The Foetal Condition: A Sociology of Engendering and Abortion (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2013) 118
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