Abortion Workers Talk...
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On
Abortion...
“In medical practice, there
are few surgical procedures given
so little attention and so
underrated in its potential
hazards as abortion. It is a
commonly held view that
complications are inevitable.” -
-Warren Hern, Abortionist
“[The abortionists] get to go inflict
pain on someone for five minutes…”
- Charlotte Taft,
Former Clinic Administrator
“No one ever says ‘Thank you’ to an
abortionist.” - -
Unidentified Abortionist
“Every woman...has a trauma
at destroying a pregnancy...This
is a part of her own life. When
she destroys a pregnancy, she is
destroying herself.” - -
Dr. Julius Fogel, Psychiatrist/OB
performed over 20,000 abortions
“Even now I feel a little peculiar about
it, because as a physician I was trained to conserve life, and here I am
destroying it.”--
Unidentified Abortionist
“If the abortion is well
done, we don’t have to watch the
baby die. So we inject a salt
solution. The result is like
putting salt on a slug, but we don’t
have to watch it.” - Dr.
Russell Sacco, M.D.
“It was obviously the fetus being
distressed by swallowing the salt solution and kicking violently through
the death trauma… we are the executioners in this instance.” - Dr. John Szenens,
abortionist
“I looked inside the bucket...There was
a small naked person in there, floating in a bloody liquid. He was purple
with bruises and his face had the agonizing tautness of one forced to die
too soon.” - Susan
Lindstrom, M.S.W.
“Sure, the money was important. And oh,
it was an easy thing, once I had taken this step—to see these women as
animals and these babies as just tissue.” -
an unnamed abortionist
“…[abortion is still] the
dark side of medicine.” - Morris Wortman, Abortionist,
Democrat and Chronicle, July 5, 1992
“I guess I never realized I
would find [performing abortions]
as unpleasant as I do. I really
don’t enjoy it at all. It’s
not a rewarding thing to do…
[patients] look at you as an evil
person who is deliberately putting them through a painful procedure...it’s
their whole attitude that bothers me. I feel like a simple thank you is in
order, instead of, ’Why are you doing this to me?’” - New
York Abortionist, The
New York Times Magazine, January 18, 1998
“[Doing abortions] can make
you feel bad… No matter how
pro-choice you are, it makes you
feel low.”
- New York
Abortionist, The
New York Times Magazine, January 18, 1998
“The abortion clinics never
accept any responsibility for
complications. They just say it
was not their fault. The concern
is not the patient at this time.
The concern is with taking care of
the doctor and keeping his
reputation and the clinic’s
[reputation] clean.” - Carol
Everett, Former Clinic Director
and Owner
“You know that there is
something alive in there that you’re
killing.” - Unidentified
Abortionist, In
Necessity and Sorrow, Magna
Denes,New York: Basic Books, Inc.,
1976
“The sensations of
dismemberment flow through the
forceps like an electric current.” -
Dr. Warren Hern, Abortionist, Associations
of Planned Parenthood Physicians
meeting,San Diego, October 26,
1978
“It’s a nasty, dirty, yucky
thing and I always come home
angry.”
- David Zbaraz,
Abortionist, Washington
Post, March 3, 1980
“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,
In Necessity and Sorrow, Magna
Denes, New York:Basic Books, Inc.,
1976
“An abortion kills the life
of a baby after it has begun. It
is dangerous to your life and
health. It may make you sterile so
that when you want a child you
cannot have it.”,“Plan
Your Children” Planned
Parenthood pamphlet, 1962
“[The abortion procedure is] inherently
negative. I don’t think that anyone can say that abortion is right...It’s
a form of life...This has to be killing…” -New York Abortionist, Democrat
and Chronicle, July 5, 1992
“[The governing force behind the
abortion industry is] money. It is a very lucrative business. It is the
largest unregulated industry in our nation.” - Carol
Everett, Former Clinic Director
and Owner
“And that we really are running a business and it was very difficult...for me when I say, “Oh
my God we didn’t do enough abortions today! Ahhh! You know we’re not gonna make our budget...but that is the bottom line with us…” -Cheryl Schrepf, National Abortion Federation 16th Annual Mtg. April 12-15, 1992
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"On Workers’ Reactions…"
It’s difficult being in a
profession where you have a hard
time answering the questions that
other people ask you about what
you do...you come to feel not so
good about what you’re doing
even when you thought you were
doing something wonderful.”
-Terry Beresford, Planned
Parenthood
“The doctors would remove the
fetus...and then lay it on the
table, where it would squirm until
it died...They all had perfect
forms and shapes. I couldn’t
take it, no nurse could.”
-Former Planned Parenthood Director, American Medical News,
July 12, 1993
“I had gotten involved in
abortion because I wanted to help.
But instead, while sucking the
child out of its mother I was also
sucking out the mother’s soul
and leaving an empty shell, an
empty tomb. I began to detest what
I was doing. More than that, I
began to detest myself. I even
entertained thoughts of suicide.”
-
Beverly McMillan, M.D. OB/GYN,
former abortionist
“There are weary, grim
moments when I think I cannot bear
another basin of bloody remains,
utter another kind phrase of
reassurance…‘How can you stand
it?’ even the clients ask. They
see the machine, the strange
instruments, the blood, the final
strike that wipes away the promise
of pregnancy. Sometimes I see that
too: I watch a woman’s swollen
abdomen sink to softness in a few
stuttering moments and my own
belly flip-flops with sorrow.” - Sallie Tisdale, Clinic Nurse,
Harper’s
Magazine,
October 1987
“Clinic workers have very
mixed emotions about abortion…Clinic
workers may say they support a
woman’s right to choose, but
they will also say that they do
not want to see tiny hands and
tiny feet. They do not want to be
faced with the consequences of
their actions...There is a great
difference between the
intellectual support of the woman’s
right to choose and the actual
participation in the carnage of
abortion. Because seeing body
parts bothers the workers.”-
Judith Fetrow, Former clinic
worker
“I am having difficulty with
my feelings about late abortions
also. More and more, I don’t
even know anymore if I believe in
it. There is just so much pain.” -
Abortion Counselor, In
Necessity and Sorrow,
Magna Denes, New
York: Basic Books, Inc., 1976
“[D&E abortions are] far
more ‘psychologically
traumatizing’ for the
doctors...I can’t do them
anymore.” - Head of
Obstetrics/Philadelphia teaching
hospital,
Philadelphia Inquirer,
July 18, 1993
“[I’ve seen women] who have
just had an abortion...lie in the
recovery room and cry, ‘I’ve
just killed my baby. I’ve just
killed my baby.’ I don’t know
what to say to these women. Part
of me thinks, ‘Maybe they’re
right.’” -
Abortion Nurse, American
Medical News,
July 12, 1993
“We don’t have real
conversations. Sometimes the
employees faint. Sometimes they
throw up. Sometimes they have to
leave the room…” -
Joy Davis, Clinic Manager
A clinic worker describes
dreams in which she sees “aborted
fetuses stare at [her] with
ancient eyes asking, ‘Why? Why
did you do this to me?’” American
Medical News, July 12, 1993
“I have fetus dreams, we all
do here: dreams of abortions one
after the other; of buckets of
blood splashed on the walls; trees
full of crawling fetuses. I
dreamed that two men grabbed me
and began to drag me away, ‘Let’s
do an abortion,’ they said with
a sickening leer, and I began to
scream, plunged into a vision of
sucking, scraping pain, of being
spread and torn by impartial
instruments that do only what they
are bidden…” - Clinic Nurse,Harper’s
Magazine,
October 1978
“Two respondents described
dreams which they had related to
the procedure. Both described
dreams of vomiting fetuses along
with a sense of horror...In
general, it appears that the more
direct the physical and visual
involvement the more stress
experienced.” - Warren Hern,
Abortionist, Associations
of Planned Parenthood Physicians
meeting, San
Diego, October 26, 1978
“Planned Parenthood is set up
so clinic workers never have to
see the babies. It’s set up that
way because having to look at the
babies bothers the workers.
Planned Parenthood workers talk
about how seeing parts is
emotionally painful for them...The
smell of blood penetrates the
clinic on the killing days...I was
the person who had to dispose of
[the babies]...There were days
when I would go home and think,
‘You know, maybe this isn’t
right.’”- Former Planned
Parenthood employee
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On
Abortionists...
“[The few doctors willing to
replace those who are retiring
are] mostly physicians who have
had difficulty establishing
regular ob-gyn practices.”
Mentioning a clinic in Nebraska
where a young doctor was brought
in to replace an older one, “Out
of his first six months of work,
there are nine malpractice
suits...After it was apparent the
guy was a klutz, they kept using
him, and trying to cover for him, because they couldn’t find
another provider.” -
Robert Crist, Abortionist, St.
Petersburg Times,
June 3, 1990

“[Abortion is] the dirty work
of our field. The sad truth is
that the people who moonlight at
the clinics are grade-B doctors.
They’re not the cream of the
crop.” - Unidentified
Pro-abortion OB/GYN, The
New York Times Magazine, January
18, 1998
“...These guys are pitiful.” - Charlotte Taft, Former Clinic
Administrator,
Lime 5, Mark Crutcher
“In obstetrics and gynecology, the term
abortionist is still a dirty word.”- Joe
Thompson, Retired Abortionist,
South Bend Tribune, December
26, 1992
“Most physicians regard
abortion as a stigmatized
operation done by people who are
otherwise incompetent and can’t
do anything else.” - Warren Hern,
Abortionist, American
Medical News, September 5, 1994
“...abortion is still a very
fringe-type practice. There aren’t
a lot of people who want to get
into abortion provision...And the
ones that we do have applying to
us for training often have very
dodgy histories and backgrounds.
And if you dig deep enough, you’ll
find a death or two or a
malpractice suit or a
deregistration somewhere along the
line…” - David Grundmann,
Australia Abortionist, National
Abortion Federation Risk
Management Seminar,Seattle, WA,
September 1993
“There’s still the shame
thing, even among people who are
pro-choice...We are still seen as
dirty, even among our own people.” -
Diane Derzis, Abortion Clinic
Administrator,
Atlanta Journal Constitution,
May 16, 1993
“It’s true that abortion
providers are perceived as not
very good doctors—that they have
no alternative so they do
abortions, that they cannot earn a
living any other way.” - Richard Hausknecht, Abortionist, The
New York Times Magazine, January
18, 1998
“If we see a doctor out there
who’s really hurting women, it’s
incumbent upon us to blow the
whistle—no matter what the
outcome. But it’s a real choice,
because you could end up with
someone worse—or no doctor at
all…” - Ron Fitzsimmons,
Director of National Coalition of
Abortion Providers,
Abortion Report, July 7, 1994
“[I am] angry at the
woman...I have angry feelings at
myself for feeling good about
grasping the [head of the fetus],
for feeling good about doing a
technically good procedure which
destroys a fetus, kills a baby.” - Unidentified Abortionist, American
Medical News, July 12, 1993
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On
Deceit…
“Sometimes we lied. A girl might ask
what her baby was like at a certain point in pregnancy. Was is a baby yet?
Even as early as twelve weeks a baby is totally formed, he has
fingerprints, turns his head, fans his toes, feels pain. But we would say,
‘It’s not a baby yet. It’s tissue, like a clot.” - Kathy Sparks,
former abortion clinic worker.
“If a woman we were
counseling expressed doubts about
having an abortion, we would say
whatever was necessary to persuade
her to have the abortion
immediately...The abortion clinic
that I managed was strictly a
business operation...We did not
consider the well-being of the
women who had abortions.” - Judy W., Office
Manager of a Texas abortion clinic
“[The abortion provider]
need[s] to protect yourself
legally by having the informed
consent [form]… it doesn’t
matter whether [the patient]
understands it, as long as she
signs it.” - Donna Stringer,
National Abortion Federation, 16th Annual Meeting, April
12-15, 1992
“It is extremely difficult to
watch doctors lie, clinic workers
cover up, and hear terrifying
stories of women dragged out of
clinics to die in cars on the way
to the hospital without beginning
to question the party line. I
began to wonder if we were really
caring for these women, or if we
were just working for another
corporation whose only interest
was the bottom line.”- Judith Fetrow, Former Planned Parenthood
worker
“...we didn’t do any real
counseling. We answered only the
questions the woman asked and
tried not to ‘rock the boat’...The
counselor does try to determine
the reason this woman wants the
abortion. Not so much to help as
to use the fear to reinforce theabortion decision.” - Carol
Everett, Former Clinic Director
and Owner
“We only sold one product—abortion
and abortion only. We took
whatever other ideas the pregnant
woman had and used them to sell
abortion...We effectively sold our
product.” - Carol Everett,
Former Clinic Director and Owner
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