ClinicQuotes

Former Clinic Worker Kathy Sparks

“In my opinion, the most important part of this particular abortion clinic was the counseling. I was able to sit with one particular worker who had eight years of college; she was so very good. She could sit down with these girls during counseling and she could cry with them at the drop of a pin.

She would immediately start drawing them out, asking them all kinds of good questions.

She would find out what their pressure point was. What was driving them to want to abort that child, and whatever that pressure point was, she would magnify it.

If it was the fact that her parents were going to ‘kill’ her, and she didn’t know how she was going to be to tell her parents; then the counselor would proceed by telling her, you don’t have to do this; that’s why abortion is here, we want to help you; this is the answer to your problems.

Oftentimes, if it was money, she would tell them how much baby items cost…the counseling at this particular abortion clinic was so effective that 99 out of every 100 women would go ahead and abort. So that’s very effective counseling.”

Personal Testimony “Meet the Abortion Providers” Convention

Ironically, Planned Parenthood of San Diego director Mark Salo had this to say of pregnancy resource centers. Pregnancy resource centers are pro-life centers where women in crisis pregnancies can go for counseling and alternatives to having an abortion. These centers often offer help and referrals for prenatal care, maternity clothes, baby items, etc..

“They start with an objective tone but if the woman says she wants to terminate the pregnancy, the tone changes. The organization attempts to really dissuade her. If they were any other kind of business, the regulatory agencies would be down on them very quickly. That’s considered fraud.”

Pamela Wilson “Bogus Abortion Clinics Probed” San Diego Daily Transcript, Sept 20, 1991

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In a book entitled “Abortion and Health Care Ethics” a pro-choice activist says:

“Health care professionals bear a responsibility for communicating realistic information about abortion to women in their care. They should assume responsibility for dispelling old wives tales about the harmful effects of the procedure. Informed consent is a necessary ingredient of care, but as with any other procedure, the individual client and are characteristic should be evaluated before deciding just what is informed consent. Communicating information can be punitive or supportive.”

E.Dorsey Smith “Abortion and Health Care Ethics” Quoted in Mary Kay Culp’s review on page 7 of the October 24, 1985 National Right to Life News

This philosophy leaves the door open for practitioners to “tailor” information for the desired effect.

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Sometimes abortion counseling becomes a time to indoctrinate and influence women to become active abortion rights supporters:

Former abortion clinic worker Lorraine LaNeve stated, in a conference for former abortion providers:

“I started my job functioning in all the duties of a nurse. First, by preparing the clients in the waiting room by medicating them with Valium and then influencing my captive audience to write letters to the elected officials pleading that abortion should remain a woman’s right….”

Meet the Abortion Providers Conference, quoted at Priests for Life

……

“….the counselors have also been using the counseling sessions to talk to women about the fact that legalized abortion is now threatened and what they can do to preserve the right to choose. Women are given post cards they can fill out and mail to their elected officials asking them to support pro-choice. The clinic also prints flyers that educate women about the abortion right.”

Marian Faux “Crusaders: Voices from the Abortion Front” (New York: Carol Publishing Group) 1990 p 84

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One author who observed in an abortion clinic gives more evidence that many women who come in for an abortion are ambivalent and need counseling:

“Some patients rescheduled four, five, even six times, often leaving the clinic with pamphlets on adoption and referrals for professional counseling.”

Cynthia Gorney Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars (Simon & Shuster: New York) 1998

While this clinic may have provided information on adoption, most clinics do not do so.

For example, in 2000 Planned Parenthood of Blue Ridge, an abortion provider in Southwest Virginia, decided to provide adoption counseling. Only four other Planned Parenthood clinics, out of 900 nationwide, have even expressed interest in followed suit.

“Adoption Advice Draws Scant Interest at Clinic.” Julia Duin. The Washington Times. Publication Date: April 16, 2000. P 5

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In an article in “Obstetrics & Gynecology” which discussed qualifications of abortion clinic counselors, it was said that

“Professional background is considered less important than such personal attributes as warmth, caring, empathy and a commitment to the pro-choice cause.”

Landy, U. (1986), “Abortion Counseling – A New Component of Medical Care,” Clinics in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 33, page 37.

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One nurse discussed how her clinic used cash incentives to get women in to have abortions:

‘Everything is geared to getting as many people in for terminations as possible. When I started in July 2004, the branch was performing between 20 and 30 surgical abortions a day. But we were told Essex was doing 50 a day and that we were under-performing. So they called a meeting last November at which we were told our bonuses were being withheld until we caught up.

‘We had two wards upstairs and it was like a car production plant.

When I started, people would be given a few hours to recover, but by the end they were waking them up within half an hour and getting them out.

‘The bonuses acted as a sales incentive, as if you were working on a perfume counter in a department store. The more people you got booked in for terminations, the better your bonus would be.”

The director of the clinic, when interviewed, admitted that clinic employees received “performance-related awards” and were regularly told to increase their “efficiency and capacity’ if they wanted to receive the full amount.

“Dennis Rice, Rachel Ellis “Abortion Nurses ‘Are Paid Incentive Bonuses’; Marie Stopes Clinics Stand Accused of Offering Commercial-Style ‘Perfomance Cash’ to Staff.” The Mail on Sunday, September 4, 20052005

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“Sometimes even counseling was done in groups to save time, ten or fifteen women sitting in a circle…At other times I was strictly limited to a five-minute counseling session for each patient.”

Jenny Higgins, pro-choice clinic counselor

Jenny Higgins “Sex, Unintended Pregnancy, and Poverty” Abortion Under Attack: Women on the Challenges Facing Choice by Krista Jacob (ed) Seal Press: California 2006, p 48

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“…and I’m not joking, I believed that because it was new, we used to let the boyfriend or husband come to the room where we were doing the abortion…we were very modern, we let boyfriends come in, and they all passed out, and more, one sued me because when he fall [sic] he broke his tooth, he sued me…and so what do I do now if somebody comes? ‘The state says no.’

The state doesn’t say no but I blame the state. They don’t bother to check with the state…

my wife says we doctors have a license to lie and it’s true. It’s absolutely true. Sometimes you need to lie to a patient about things that they want to do or know, much less now than in the past because they’re more educated between CNN and the internet, the patients are more educated about what we do.”

Doctor Alberto Hodari, abortionist

Speech by Dr. Alberto Hodari at Wayne State University, November 9, 2007. It can be heard in its entirety at www.studentsforlife.org

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Dr. Christensen performs around 3,000 abortions a year in his clinic. An article describes how he responds to an informed consent law:

He said he decided to put it [the state mandated information] on videotape so he could see patients while others viewed his lecture. And, he made a few of what he said he felt were corrections. While the state form says ”unborn child,” he says ”the developing pregnancy.’…’This is all basically harassment,” he said.

Dr. Christensen does say that one out of every ten women leaves after hearing the taped information.

Kate Zernike “An Abortion Doctor’s View” New York Times, January 20, 2003

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“I was totally uninformed of available alternatives to abortion. I never recommended adoption or keeping the child. Furthermore, I was completely unaware of the medical facts, including the development of the fetus. I received no training in factual matters- my job was just to keep women happy and make sure they went along with an abortion.”

Abortion Clinic Worker

Interview by Randy Alcorn Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments (Eternal Perspectives Ministries: Grand Rapids, Michigan 1992) p 100

However:

In many states, there are no laws governing what clinics must tell patients about abortion medical risks, leaving the clinics free to withhold this information from prospective patients. A bill was proposed to mandate that information about the physical and mental complications of abortion be given to women. Nearly all pro-choice organizations opposed this legislation, as did abortionists.

Here is a quote by Joyce Tarnow, owner of an abortion clinic in Florida:

”We have always had informed consent, that is that they understand what an abortion is: that it’s a termination of pregnancy, This (pamphlet mandating clinics tell patients the risks of abortion) is just an anti-abortion campaign that’s gone too far.”

“Pamphlet Throws Clinics for a Loop” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel July 2, 1997

See mere quotes in this section about why informed consent laws are needed.

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