From Lydia, an administrator at an abortion clinic:
“Patients who have a wanted pregnancy and lose it, or choose abortions because of fetal anomalies, always call it “the baby.” It is a baby to them, developed or not… Some women never “connect” to the pregnancy… For them, it is nothing like a baby. It is just there, and they want it removed. They would hate the word “baby” and do not use it. Our job is to meet the woman where she is and provide her with accurate information. I do not feel it is my job to correct terminology as long as she has a thorough understanding of the facts.”
Carole Joffe Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: the Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2009) 128
And what is a “thorough understanding of the facts?” See here.
The following quote was in a book written by a pro-choice writer who interviewed clinic workers and spent time observing abortions in a busy clinic. She quotes the director of nursing talking about how nurses actually enjoyed it when women suffered injuries and complications from their abortions:
“In some ways it is very boring, these abortions — the same thing day after day. In fact the nurses are excited about complications because it’s something different.”
A Director of Nursing at an abortion facility
Magna Denes, In Necessity and Sorrow, New York: Basic Books. Inc.. 1976
This shows a remarkable callousness towards their patients, the very women they are supposed to be serving.
An abortionist was asked under oath whether or not he told women considering abortions that their babies would be dismembered in the abortion procedure.
THE COURT: So you tell her [the woman] the arms and legs are pulled off. .. Do you tell her?
THE WITNESS: We tell her the baby, the fetus is dismembered as part of the procedure, yes.
Testimony of abortionist Dr Timothy Johnson, National Abortion Federation, et. al. v. Ashcroft, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, March 31, 2004.
Eight weeks – common age for an abortion. This baby would be torn limb from limb, dismembered, in an abortion procedure
Dismembered limbs of an eight week old aborted baby
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in an interview that she was surprised at a 1980 court ruling that prevented the restoration of Medicaid funding for abortions, because, in her opinion, when Roe V Wade was decided:
“Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth, and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”
E, Bazelton “The Place of Women on the Court.” New York Times Magazine” July 7, 2009 Quoted in Doctor Alveda King and Dr.La Verne Tolbert Life at All Costs: an Anthology of Voices from 21st-Century Black Pro-Life Leaders (Xlibris Corporation, 2012)
It’s interesting to speculate who these people are who, according to Ginsburg, “we don’t want to have too many of.” It doesn’t take a big leap of logic to assume that most of “these people” are in fact minorities.
“The procedures that I have observed, they all used a crushing instrument to deliver the head.”
Testimony of abortionist Dr Timothy Johnson, National Abortion Federation, et. al. v. Ashcroft, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, March 31, 2004
14 weeks – in an abortion at this stage, the baby’s head would be crushed
And Then There Were None is a ministry that reaches out to clinic workers and abortionists and helps them find employment when they leave the abortion industry. Their newsletter, told the story of a woman who left a Planned Parenthood clinic. Her clinic did not perform abortions, but, like all Planned Parenthood clinics, referred patients for them.
Here is her story:
“I was drawn to PP for the same reasons many are…helping woman and men in crisis. I live in a very high poverty area in Northern California. Offering birth control at low or no cost to these women (and female reproductive health care) seemed like a pretty smart idea. Like so many people, my brain was just thinking birth control methods and annual exams. I genuinely believed that was their goal.
From an abortion at eight weeks
That changed when I was required to go to an abortion clinic in our affiliate in order to observe abortions. I was asked by my Health Center Director what my thoughts were on my experience…what a trap. She wanted me to use the term “empowering” as I discussed my experience. Instead, I said it was disturbing. That is when it went down hill for me. Prior to that I often received employee of the month, customer service awards….I actually began refusing them.
After that conversation with my supervisor I quickly realized something…Planned Parenthood does not empower women and I have not been helping them. We were hindering them from making good choices and being responsible. We were sending the message “do whatever you want sexually, we will help you take care of any consequences.”
At the end of my time there, I had tried to suggest things that would, by their terms, reduce the number of unintended pregnancies (therefore reducing the number of abortions). That’s what we said our goal was, right? But when I suggested that we give reminder calls for birth control injections, pill refills, etc, it was quickly shot down. They said that would be “too costly in staff time.” That was too costly, but they had no problem spending $20,000 on wall art? It became very easy to see their priorities, and it was not on women’s health.
I am so thankful that there is an organization to help people like me. It is good to know that I am forgiven and that I am not alone. Thank you, And Then There Were None.
THE COURT: “An affidavit I saw earlier said sometimes, I take it, the fetus is alive until they crush the skull?”
THE WITNESS: “That’s correct, yes, sir.”
Testimony of abortionist Dr Timothy Johnson, National Abortion Federation, et. al. v. Ashcroft, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, March 31, 2004.
Crushing the skull is an important step in a D&E abortion, performed in the second or third trimester
Above: 16 week old baby – her skull would be crushed in an abortion
The mother of a young girl told the following story:
“My child was provided [with] alcohol, raped and then taken out of the state by a stranger to have an abortion. This stranger turned out to be the mother of the adult male who provided the alcohol and then raped my daughter while she was unconscious. The rapist’s mother arranged and paid for an abortion….to destroy evidence that my 12 year old daughter had been raped. “
Chrystal Lane was testifying in support of the Child Custody Protection Act, House, Op., Cit 58. which would make it illegal for anyone but a minors’ parents to take her across state lines for an abortion.
William Saletan Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War (Berkley: California: University of California Press, 2004) 242
There have been many cases where abortion clinics, such as those affiliated with Planned Parenthood, did abortions on underage girls impregnated by adult men without reporting possible child abuse.
One woman who regretted her abortion talked about how no one was there to help her when she became pregnant. What she really needed was a friend, someone to encourage her.
“It was weird. I didn’t want abortion. I didn’t want all that guilt again. But all the people at the abortion clinic were real helpful and friendly and tried to make you feel like you were doing the right thing. Nobody else in my life had tried to help me. Everybody else would just look down their noses at me for being pregnant. It seemed like the abortion clinic was the only place to find help.”
David C Reardon Aborted Women: Silent No More (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway books, 1987) 33
This woman’s story illustrates how important it is to just be a friend to women facing an unplanned pregnancy. It also speaks to how important crisis pregnancy centers are, these organizations that provide free counseling and help to women considering abortion. It’s also important that a single woman who is pregnant is not responded to with judgment and condemnation. Shame can push a woman into abortion.
