ClinicQuotes

Women who abort don’t have “socially sanctioned” way to mourn

From pro-choice author Cara J. Marianna, who interviewed post-abortion women and listened to their stories:

“There is an unspoken social agreement that abortion, however necessary, is an abomination, and pregnant women must be protected from it. Part of the grief that can surround abortion is a physiological response to the loss of the pregnancy. Yet women who abort do not have a socially sanctioned way to recognize what they have been through. It is as if, in the eyes of society, we never were pregnant.”

Cara J. Marianna Abortion: A Collective Story (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002) 88

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Abortion doulas: talking honestly about abortion “feeds the anti-choice movement”

Two doulas who work in abortion clinics wrote in their book that they knew being honest about abortion (how it looked, and how it hurt women) would give ammunition to the pro-life side:

“We knew that acknowledging complicated feelings about abortion was going to be a delicate task and that being real about what an abortion actually looked like would be even more delicate. Asserting that someone might need support during an abortion? Forget it. Those were acknowledgments that many felt could be dangerous to the policies and laws in place that protect our right to choose.

Frequently, there was concern that we could be feeding the anti-choice [pro-life] movement with our perspectives.”

Mary Mahoney and Lauren Mitchell The Doulas: Radical Care for Pregnant People (New York: Feminist Press, 2016) 18-19

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Pro-Choice activist calls unplanned pregnancy “an infection”

Pro-Life author William Brennan cited the following quote from a pro-abortion activist:

Natalie Shainess, abortion advocate, called unplanned pregnancy an “unseen infection deep in the body.”

Natalie Sainess “Abortion is No Man’s Business” Psychology Today May 1970, p 20

Quoted in: William Brennan The Abortion Holocaust: Today’s Final Solution (St. Louis, Missouri, 1983)

Is this an infection or a baby?

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Professional counselors fail to help post-abortion woman

One woman tells her abortion story, and writes about how mainstream mental health professionals failed to help her:

“After the abortion I woke up and was staring at a brick wall. I had never felt so dirty and disgusted with myself…

My life from that moment changed for the worse. I would drink myself to a point of hospitalization and each time I was admitted I would talk about the abortion. The doctors and nurses would tell me I needed to see someone about my issues. They couldn’t even say the word “abortion” to me. In one admission I wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital as they had fears for my safety. They had me speak with a psychiatrist before I left and he said I was fine and I seemed to be overreacting to the abortion and my work was the real issue. I looked blank at him and thought I’m just going to tell you what you want to hear so I can leave.

I spoke with many counselors, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists and none of them understood me. In my mind no one could help me get through the anguish of having had an abortion.

I drank to excess at every opportunity… I knew the reason behind all the self-destructive behavior was the abortion, and I thought that’s all my life was going to amount to. I was so angry at my now ex-partner, abortion clinic and most of all myself for allowing this abortion to affect me so badly that I would deliberately put myself into positions to danger…

She went to a counselor who specialized in post-abortion healing and finally found peace:

I now have a plaque on a beautiful memorial at a church in Melbourne. This finally gave me some closure.

It’s only since I have acknowledged her and giving her a name that I’ve been able to move on. The memory will always remain.”

Anne R Lastman Redeeming Grief: Abortion and Its Pain (Balwyn, Vic: Australia: Gracewing, 2013) 210 – 211

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Women have negative views of adoption

Mary Beth Seader of the National Committee for Adoption:

“Birthmothers encounter individuals constantly throughout their pregnancy, whether friends or strangers, who state their uninformed but emotional opinions about adoption. Birthmothers are called anything from irresponsible, to cold and heartless, and seemingly transgress cultural norms.…

When you mention adoption to a girl, she thinks right away of foster homes. And there is not a girl I talk to who wants her baby in a foster home. [When she asks clients] “What happens to a baby in adoption?” They commonly respond, “No one will love my baby.””

Mary Beth Seader Pregnancy Counseling: Traditional and Experimental Practices, National Committee for Adoption, 11

Quoted in Susan Olasky, Marvin Olasky More than Kindness: A Compassionate Approach to Crisis Childbearing (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway books, 1990)

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Woman who had abortion: “there was no counseling”

Pro-choice author Cara J. Marianna compiled a collection of women’s abortion testimonies for a book. One woman says:

“I had to [travel to another town for the abortion]. I remember going once and, thinking back now, there wasn’t any question from the nurses there about, ‘Do I want to keep this child?’ It was just assumed that this is what I’m going to do. There wasn’t any counseling otherwise or questions about it.”

Cara J. Marianna Abortion: A Collective Story (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002) 78

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Psychiatrist compares abortion to amputation of a gangrenous limb

Pro-life author William Brennan cited the following quote:

Psychiatrist Jerome M Kummer compared abortion to “an appendectomy for acute appendicitis or amputation to remove a gangrenous or cancerous limb.”

Robert E. Hall, ed Abortion in a Changing World (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1970) 1: 99

From William Brennan The Abortion Holocaust: Today’s Final Solution (St. Louis, Missouri, 1983)

Is this baby really equivalent to an appendix or infected limb?

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Therapist fails to help woman’s post-abortion mourning

A therapist told a woman suffering from abortion regret that her abortion was the right decision, but this failed to resolve the woman’s grief.

The post-abortion woman said:

“I saw for a short time a therapist who tried to tell me to get on with it and that it was the best decision that was possible for that timeframe in my life but I realized that this therapist did not know a thing about grief and mourning. The therapist did not acknowledge that aborted children are important and therefore worth mourning over. This is the mistake being made. If someone doesn’t believe that my aborted baby was a “baby” or “important” that simply says that they are not prepared to acknowledge my grief and pain and that means that they can cause more hurt than healing. Thank God that by “accident” I heard about Anne and her manner of counseling abortive women and since going to her I have started on my way back home again and it feels so good.”

Anne R Lastman Redeeming Grief: Abortion and Its Pain (Balwyn, Vic: Australia: Gracewing, 2013) 246

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Abortionist calls abortion “humane”

Abortionist Dr. Michael S Burnhill referred to abortion as:

“A consistently high quality, humane service.”

Michael S Burnhill “Humane Abortion Services: A Revolution in Human Rights and the Delivery of a Medical Service” Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine 42 (September/October 1975): 950

Pictures of aborted babies at 10 weeks. Was this humane?

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