British proabortion activist Ann Kellecher on what to do when babies are found to be disabled in the womb:
“The rational policy would be to allow the foetus to be born (if you suspected it was unacceptable) and then to kill it if it was affected. But probably the better thing to do would be to allow the foetus, the child, to reach a certain age, whatever age that it might be expected to understand these things, and then ask it if it wanted to go on living.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 235-236
A woman whose doctor urged her to have an abortion refused and now has a grown son and two grandchildren:
“Just before my marriage in 1936, I discovered that I had become pregnant and it was an awful shock as my future husband’s family were very strict and uncompromising people. However, I bluffed the whole thing through and got married, but eventually when four months pregnant, I had to go to the doctor. He was very worried that I had left the visit so long owing to trouble in my heart he was sure I could not have the baby. Eventually my mother took me to a Harley Street specialist and after examination he advised a medical abortion as soon as possible. Somehow although only 22 years of age, the mere idea of abortion seemed like murder and I absolutely refused to have it done. My mother begged me and so did the specialist, but somehow I just couldn’t. At the birth things were very difficult and only expertise on the part of the doctors saved us both and I had to stay in bed for months. Eventually the baby – a son – great up [sic] a fine, healthy man, and had two sons of his own. When I see my healthy son and his almost grown-up sons I am so thankful that somebody put so strongly the idea into my mind that abortion was wrong.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 206
An OB/GYN who has treated women after botched abortions believes that abortionists should have admitting privileges
“James Linn, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Columbia St. Mary’s, testified that he was called in to assist with an emergency operation about 10 years ago for a woman who was brought to his hospital from Affiliated.
He said he did not believe the doctor who provided the abortion appropriately followed up with the patient and thought that doctor should have been referred to the state Medical Examining Board for “basically abandoning a patient.”
“The doctor never really called to check on the patient, which I found appalling,” he testified.
The woman was bleeding and going into shock and ultimately required a hysterectomy.
If doctors who perform abortions were required to have hospital admitting privileges, “I don’t think it would be as likely patients would be abandoned,” he testified. “There would be a way to track if someone was having an inordinate number of complications.”
Patrick Marley “Admitting privileges hold abortion doctors accountable, physician says” Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel May 28, 2014
I have no doubt that there are women who regret their abortions. . . . But when you read the stories on the regretful sites, a theme starts popping up-“I didn’t want to abort, but. . . .” And they start the blame game. . . . “My boyfriend said he’d leave me.” “My parents said they’d stop paying for school.” Never is it said that they made the decision. Until someone can show me a case where a woman was tied up, stuffed in the trunk of a car, brought to a clinic and tied down onto a table, I will always believe that a woman knew exactly what she was doing.
In the article “Fetal Psychology” scientists explain how a baby learns to differentiate between voices while in her mother’s womb. This article appeared in the reputable publication Psychology Today.
“Along with the ability to feel, see, and hear comes the capacity to learn and remember. … For example, a fetus, after an initial reaction of alarm, eventually stops responding to a repeated loud noise. The fetus displays the same kind of primitive learning, known as habituation, in response to its mother’s voice, Fifer has found.
But the fetus has shown itself capable of far more. In the 1980s, psychology professor Anthony James DeCasper, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, devised a feeding contraption that allows a baby to suck faster to hear one set of sounds through headphones and to suck slower to hear a different set. With this technique, DeCasper discovered that within hours of birth, a baby already prefers its mother’s voice to a stranger’s, suggesting it must have learned and remembered the voice, albeit not necessarily consciously, from its last months in the womb. More recently, he’s found that a newborn prefers a story read to it repeatedly in the womb – in this case, The Cat in the Hat – over a new story introduced soon after birth.
DeCasper and others have uncovered more mental feats. Newborns can not only distinguish their mother from a stranger speaking, but would rather hear Mom’s voice, especially the way it sounds filtered through amniotic fluid rather than through air. …
By monitoring changes in fetal heart rate, psychologist JeanPierre Lecanuet, Ph.D., and his colleagues in Paris have found that fetuses can even tell strangers’ voices apart.”
An author quotes an activist who helped thalidomide victims:
“Marjorie Wallace, who conducted the Sunday Times campaigns to win compensation for thalidomide victims, has personally interviewed over 100 thalidomide people and says:
“They represent the full range of perfectly normal personalities, and are not unhappier than any other random group of 100 fully able-bodied people.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 130
A postabortion woman was asked how her abortion affected her in a study:
“Q: So how do you feel now about having an abortion?
A: It was very different than I had expected it. It sort of affected my whole life and the way I just take care of my health in general… I just know that it was a trauma to put my body through… I felt a lot of conflicting emotions. Mostly directed towards the man that I had gotten pregnant with … I mostly felt my relationship with him [the father] was gone with the abortion as far as my commitment to any relationship with him… I will never be the same as I was before I had the abortion.”
Judith G. Smetana Concepts of Self and Morality: Women’s Reasoning about Abortion (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1982) 103 – 104
An abortion doula named Whitney describes being in the room during a second trimester abortion. The woman is asleep from anesthesia.
“In the background, music is playing. The doctors talk quietly about their upcoming vacations and the weather.
The doulas almost all say that they expect a certain reverence to fill the OR during an abortion, an air that is hushed, respectful, sometimes somber, and maybe even celebratory…We are often surprised when we see that for some people, especially the doctors and the nurses who do surgeries and abortions all day, every day, sometimes it’s just a job.”
Mary Mahoney and Lauren Mitchell The Doulas: Radical Care for Pregnant People (New York: Feminist Press, 2016) 93
D & E. This is the procedure the doctors were doing.Share on Facebook
The author witnessed abortions and interviewed postabortion women and men. She remarked that many women give up smoking to protect the baby, even when they plan to have abortions:
“The maternal instinct manifests itself in many curious ways; it is not so very unusual to encounter a woman who has an abortion appointment for eight days hence – but who has given up smoking cigarettes for the waiting interval “so as not to damage the baby.” This might be sensible if the woman was still uncertain as to whether she would proceed with the pregnancy or not, but it occurs even when the woman is certain she will terminate it. Yet there is a feeling that while the foetus is there, it elicits a sense of protection.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 226-227
Seven weeks. Most abortions in the US take place at this time or later in pregnancy
In a study, a person explains why she is against late term abortion (after 20 weeks). She has the facts wrong on abortion:
A: It is a person, she would just be killing a human person if she had an abortion. Yeah, it would be, it would be manslaughter after so many months, because it is human, it has a heart, it has feet. It has legs. Everything – a brain.
Q: How about before that time?
A: It’s just a blob, it’s not a person because it’s not fully developed yet. It doesn’t have the important parts yet. You would only be killing a blob.”
Judith G. Smetana Concepts of Self and Morality: Women’s Reasoning about Abortion (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1982) 128 – 129
This woman supports abortion because she has her facts wrong. The heart of the baby starts beating in the third week.
