Eye Witness to Abortion
Content
Eye Witness to Abortion
Abortion clinic employee blog Abortion Clinic Days, Blog 11-30-2005 Quote: “ In my clinic, we wash off the tissue and examine it. It is treated respectfully and put with the woman's first name into a container. We show it to patients if they ask to see it, and make sure they understand which part is the sac (later the placenta), which part the pregnancy if visible (after 9 weeks), and which part the lining of the uterus. People have been known to pray over it, write notes for inclusion, "baptize" it, etc. etc. Some clinic staff have also been known to say a little prayer over it--thanking it for its sacrifice so that the woman could continue on the path she was on.” Abortion clinic nurse American Medical News, Abortion providers share inner conflicts, 7-12-1993 Quote: “ I was watching the doctor struggle with the cannula, trying to pull it out. I didn’t understand what the resistance was all about. And I was very alarmed and all of the sudden the doctor pulled the cannula out and there, as I was at the woman’s side was a foot sticking out. I will never forget the feeling I had in my chest as the doctor pulled the cannula out. It almost took the breadth out of me. Because the reality of this was very hard for me.” Abortion clinic nurse The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dreaded Complication, 8-2-1981 Quote: “ It looked right at me.” Describing the aborted baby she was asked to remove from one patient’s room, “This baby had real big eyes.” (Note: the baby survived the abortion, but the abortionists told the nurse to take it to the lab and let it die.) Abortion clinic nurse Testimony of a Medical Student who worked for a Planned Parenthood clinic: Abortion Action Guide, Medical Students for Choice, National Abortion Federation, September 1993 Quote: “ I began to soul search abortion not as the somewhat abstract political statement it had been, but more as the personal issue dealt with on a daily basis. It was disturbing for me to see recognizable body parts in the removed tissue, usually an arm or a leg. My intent is not to be gruesome, but there is a reality behind all the political jargon that I believe I allowed myself to ignore until this experience. I have images now that accompany phrases such as, “Potential for life” and I understand the emotions that drive pro-life forces…”
Abortion clinic nurse Boston Globe: A nurse wonders; 3-11-1997 Quote: "We were not supposed to perform abortions past 12 weeks. But it would - and did happen that some women were aborted at 16 to 20 weeks. When that would happen, I would find that the tray contained blood, tissue and bone. That happened quite a lot and anyone who says it doesn't is lying." She was asked what she did with the tissue, bone, and blood, she replied, "I'd dump it in the sink, Just like it was a disposal. Tissue bones and blood. The first time I saw it, I said, 'Oh my God!' And then I washed it away down the sink. I'm ashamed I actually did that. I still think about it today. It's why I quit. "Tissue, bone and blood," she repeated. "That's not life?" B.D. Colen reporter Newsday, A High, But Necessary, Toll:5-12-1992 Quote: "I had spent a week in a clinic, watching first trimester abortions and interviewing the physicians doing them, the women having them, and the counselors working with those women... None of that prepared me for what I saw that sunny afternoon in a sterile, white procedure room at The Washington Hospital Center... After dilating, or opening, the cervix, the physician used a curette, the gynecological version of a sharpened spoon, to cut the fetus into pieces he would then remove with forceps. A large petri dish sat on an instrument stand to the right of the girl's feet, and most of the red material in the dish was unrecognizable. But from time to time during the procedure the physician would tap his forceps on the edge of the dish - and into the muck would drop a foot, or a hand, or a piece of rib cage... Having seen what I saw, I cannot for a moment abide the disingenuousness of those who argue that a fetus is not human, or those who convince themselves that abortion is not killing... Yes, abortion is killing. But it is not murder. Murder is legally banned killing. Abortion is one of many forms of legally and socially sanctioned killing." Charlotte Taft administrator of Routh Street abortion Clinic in Dallas Achieving peace in the abortion war, by Rachel McNair/ 48 Hours interview: “Choosing Sides”: Soul Searching, 8-11-1993/ The Dallas Morning News, Abortion rights activist resigns as clinic director; Taft cites differences with Routh Street owner, 2-2-1995 Quote: “ I think abortion is a kind of killing. What we are killing is not clear. You know you do a sonogram and there’s something alive. You do an abortion; it’s not alive anymore. This is not a secret.”
Dennis Christensen abortionist Wisconsin State Journal, Women need control over birth choice, physician says: 3-4-2001 Quote: Reporters spent a day at tha abortion clinic of Dennis Christensen. They described one of the abortion procedures this way: Christensen performed two abortions that day on women who were at the end of the first trimester. In each case, the tissue was suctioned into a large glass jar, filling the bottom half inch. Christensen later poured it into a straining basin and examined it "to make sure we removed all of it." At one point, he picked up a tiny foot and placed it against a ruler. "Thirteen millimeters," he announced, "which is consistent with 12 weeks of actual pregnancy." Later he held a tiny head. Its brain tissue will be sent to the National Institutes of Health for research on brain tumors. "The face looks like what it is, the human fetus. You can talk yourself into putting whatever value you want on it," he said. "It makes sense to me to put more value on it the further along you get in the pregnancy." Dr. “ X” abortionist Salon Magazine, Mothers who think, An intimate conversation with a woman on the front lines of America's most emotionally charged debate, by Camille Peri Quote: “ You look at the ultrasounds and there's a fetus with a heartbeat and then after the procedure, there's the fetus, usually in pieces, in a dish. It was alive one moment and it's not the next.” Frances Kissling former abortion clinic director The Village Voice: The Fetal Frontier, Pro-choice advocates wrestle with the uncomfortable, by Sharon Lerner: 12-7-2004 Quote: While Kissling says she supports a woman's right to have the procedure, Kissling says an honest emotional reaction to it would have helped the pro-choice effort. "It's gruesome," Kissling says of abortions performed late in pregnancy. "I think we serve ourselves well by saying that. We are so clinical and abstracted from these realities in our public presentations, it turns people off." With the bill requiring doctors to warn about fetal pain and offer fetal anesthesia coming down
the pike, Kissling sees another opportunity to show that people can support the right to abortion and care about the fetus at the same time. The standard approach for pro-choicers would be simply to shoot down the bill. But since there's the real possibility that fetuses feel pain (there's no scientific consensus on it yet), Kissling suggests instead trying to change the legislation to say that fetal anesthesia should be respectfully offered as an option. "It's a way", she says, of honoring both law and morality. "And whether I'm going to be considered less pro-choice by my colleagues because I said this, we'll see." (Frances Kissling, directed an abortion clinic, got arrested protesting at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Washington, DC, helped found the National Abortion Federation and the Global Fund for Women, president of Catholics for a Free Choice). Gale McMahon abortion clinic nurse Harper’s Magazine: Gambling With Abortion Why both sides think they have everything to lose By Cynthia Gorney, 1-27-2005 Quote: “Having it (aborted baby) intact was a goal, so they could do that, and have this closure. I knew what it meant to these women, to be able to hold them (the aborted baby), and be able to coo over them (The aborted baby) and say goodbye. It was profound. I got material, and sewed little tiny sheaths, and we got tiny hats we could dress them in. I would put them on a clean cloth, and I would swathe them. Many women spent hours in there (after they aborted the baby), and showed them to their other children. It was always treating the (aborted) babies (that she helped abort) with the respect the parents would want them to.” (Gail was also the wife of abortionist James McMahon ). GiGi abortion medical student Blog online: gdeuce13.blogspot.com/2005/07/I-love-uteri.html Quote: “…THEN we looked at what was sucked out after they wash out the blood and strain it. The first patient I saw was at 11 weeks and some days. I completely wasn't expecting it, but there were fetal parts. Like hands. And legs. And kidneys. It was pretty shocking. But, of course, after the initial shock, I was fine. I was actually fascinated by it. Until I saw one with a face. Complete with eyeballs. Told you it was graphic. It's amazing to think that all of this can form within only a couple of weeks. You go from someone who's only about 7 weeks along and you can't make out anything, to someone who's at 9 weeks, and oh, there are some fingers. The human body is amazing. Apparently, at some point this month, I'll be doing the abortions. Still not sure how I feel about it. From the doctor side of it, I'm absolutely thrilled because it's more experience. From the personal side of it, I'm really not sure. It's hard to say because now that I can I have some medical background, I have to assimilate that with how I feel. Will have to think about that some more.” (Written on her blog: describing the first time she witnessed an abortion, at a
Planned Parenthood Clinic). Ida Dupont abortion clinic employee Interview posted on: Gothamist.com: 12-1-2004, Interview by Raphie Frank Quote: “The second trimester abortions were hard for me to deal with because they are admittedly a bit gory…I remember witnessing one of these procedures and being disturbed at the sight of parts of a fetus being removed.” Joyce Arthur pro-abortion author What Pro-Choice Really Means, by Joyce Arthur, Pro-Choice Action Network Quote: “The anti-choice often accuse us of trivializing the fetus - for example, we apparently call fetuses "lumps of tissue" or "blobs." But the only time I've ever heard the word "blob" used to describe a fetus or embryo is when the anti-choice attribute it to us. No matter how much they want us to use that word or similar terms, the abortion services community is well aware of what is really inside a pregnant woman. But so is almost everyone over the age of six.” Marie board member, for online nonprofit pro-abortion group Las Vegas Weekly: Abortion pill slips under radar, By Kate Silver: 6-28-2005 Quote: "I had a surgical abortion in 1993, which was absolutely the most horrible experience in my life." Marva abortion clinic employee Newsday (New York)Abortion in America, Focus on the City; Sanger Center's Moments of Pain, Conflict, Relief: 4-5-1989 Quote: "When you see the larger body parts it's a little bit sickening." Merle Hoffman abortion clinic owner, Choices On the Issues Magazine, The Archive, On The Issues online: Vol. XII, 1989, Abortion, “The Issue” by Merle Hoffman Quote: “The first time I witnessed a second trimester abortion on a 14 year old girl and I wrote, "Now the 'abortion issue' comes home to me and CHOICES... hard. It's not just 'blood and tissue'
anymore." Ron Fitzsimmons executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers ABC Nightline, Transcript # 97022601-J07, 2-26-1997 Quote: “Well, when the woman comes in, the fetus is alive. But the doctors that we represent will affect fetal demise in utero. So that means the baby is effectively, you know, dead in the uterus and then the procedure starts.” Sabina abortion medical student Working in an abortion clinic, Sabrina has adapted to the working in the clinic and understands both sides of the abortion debate:thesite.org/uk Quote: “I work in an abortion clinic…An early abortion, i.e. less than 11 weeks, can be completed in five minutes if the patient is under a general anesthetic. Later abortions take up to half an hour, and I won't pretend, it's pretty difficult to watch. I must admit, I almost passed out watching one of the later abortions, but I'm glad I saw it... I'm in a difficult position because I do have sympathy for the fetuses that are aborted at such late stages...” Sallie Tisdale abortion clinic nurse Tisdale, Sallie, "We do abortions here: A nurse's story", Harpers Magazine, October, 1987 as printed in Contemporary Women's Issues, Feminism and Nonviolence Studies Association, Inc. Quote: “How can you stand it? Even the clients ask. They see the machine, the strange instruments, the blood, and the final stroke 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.” Stuart Campbell abortionist and professor The Tablet, The hidden wonder of new life: 10-7-2004 Quote: “Even a fetus lying there dead doesn’t convey the horror that one experiences seeing a baby moving its arms and legs, opening its mouth, sucking its thumb, and then thinking, gosh, somebody wants to, you know… It looks so vital. It has changed my view. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.” (Campbell is a pioneer of pregnancy scans, he regularly performed abortions, until he left the NHS practice.)
William Rashbaum abortionist, NY city The Boston Phoenix: Cruel to be kind, In the twilight of his career, a late-term-abortion doctor tells all: December 5-11:2003/ http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multipage/documents/03376 466.asp Quote: One of Rashbaum's former interns remembers watching him do a D&E on welldeveloped twins. "He intently leaned in closely and methodically pulled piece after piece of the fetuses out of the mother’s uterus, ignoring the attending staff’s whispers of horror — "It’s twins. It’s twins" — to each other." The intern reacted violently, running home, throwing up, and asking herself, "Is this right? Rashbaum pisses people off with his cranky, despotic ways, but the other doctors are relieved he’s around to do a job they don’t want.”
Abortion clinic employee blog Abortion Clinic Days, Blog 11-30-2005 Quote: “ In my clinic, we wash off the tissue and examine it. It is treated respectfully and put with the woman's first name into a container. We show it to patients if they ask to see it, and make sure they understand which part is the sac (later the placenta), which part the pregnancy if visible (after 9 weeks), and which part the lining of the uterus. People have been known to pray over it, write notes for inclusion, "baptize" it, etc. etc. Some clinic staff have also been known to say a little prayer over it--thanking it for its sacrifice so that the woman could continue on the path she was on.” Abortion clinic nurse American Medical News, Abortion providers share inner conflicts, 7-12-1993 Quote: “ I was watching the doctor struggle with the cannula, trying to pull it out. I didn’t understand what the resistance was all about. And I was very alarmed and all of the sudden the doctor pulled the cannula out and there, as I was at the woman’s side was a foot sticking out. I will never forget the feeling I had in my chest as the doctor pulled the cannula out. It almost took the breadth out of me. Because the reality of this was very hard for me.” Abortion clinic nurse The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dreaded Complication, 8-2-1981 Quote: “ It looked right at me.” Describing the aborted baby she was asked to remove from one patient’s room, “This baby had real big eyes.” (Note: the baby survived the abortion, but the abortionists told the nurse to take it to the lab and let it die.) Abortion clinic nurse Testimony of a Medical Student who worked for a Planned Parenthood clinic: Abortion Action Guide, Medical Students for Choice, National Abortion Federation, September 1993 Quote: “ I began to soul search abortion not as the somewhat abstract political statement it had been, but more as the personal issue dealt with on a daily basis. It was disturbing for me to see recognizable body parts in the removed tissue, usually an arm or a leg. My intent is not to be gruesome, but there is a reality behind all the political jargon that I believe I allowed myself to ignore until this experience. I have images now that accompany phrases such as, “Potential for life” and I understand the emotions that drive pro-life forces…”
Abortion clinic nurse Boston Globe: A nurse wonders; 3-11-1997 Quote: "We were not supposed to perform abortions past 12 weeks. But it would - and did happen that some women were aborted at 16 to 20 weeks. When that would happen, I would find that the tray contained blood, tissue and bone. That happened quite a lot and anyone who says it doesn't is lying." She was asked what she did with the tissue, bone, and blood, she replied, "I'd dump it in the sink, Just like it was a disposal. Tissue bones and blood. The first time I saw it, I said, 'Oh my God!' And then I washed it away down the sink. I'm ashamed I actually did that. I still think about it today. It's why I quit. "Tissue, bone and blood," she repeated. "That's not life?" B.D. Colen reporter Newsday, A High, But Necessary, Toll:5-12-1992 Quote: "I had spent a week in a clinic, watching first trimester abortions and interviewing the physicians doing them, the women having them, and the counselors working with those women... None of that prepared me for what I saw that sunny afternoon in a sterile, white procedure room at The Washington Hospital Center... After dilating, or opening, the cervix, the physician used a curette, the gynecological version of a sharpened spoon, to cut the fetus into pieces he would then remove with forceps. A large petri dish sat on an instrument stand to the right of the girl's feet, and most of the red material in the dish was unrecognizable. But from time to time during the procedure the physician would tap his forceps on the edge of the dish - and into the muck would drop a foot, or a hand, or a piece of rib cage... Having seen what I saw, I cannot for a moment abide the disingenuousness of those who argue that a fetus is not human, or those who convince themselves that abortion is not killing... Yes, abortion is killing. But it is not murder. Murder is legally banned killing. Abortion is one of many forms of legally and socially sanctioned killing." Charlotte Taft administrator of Routh Street abortion Clinic in Dallas Achieving peace in the abortion war, by Rachel McNair/ 48 Hours interview: “Choosing Sides”: Soul Searching, 8-11-1993/ The Dallas Morning News, Abortion rights activist resigns as clinic director; Taft cites differences with Routh Street owner, 2-2-1995 Quote: “ I think abortion is a kind of killing. What we are killing is not clear. You know you do a sonogram and there’s something alive. You do an abortion; it’s not alive anymore. This is not a secret.”
Dennis Christensen abortionist Wisconsin State Journal, Women need control over birth choice, physician says: 3-4-2001 Quote: Reporters spent a day at tha abortion clinic of Dennis Christensen. They described one of the abortion procedures this way: Christensen performed two abortions that day on women who were at the end of the first trimester. In each case, the tissue was suctioned into a large glass jar, filling the bottom half inch. Christensen later poured it into a straining basin and examined it "to make sure we removed all of it." At one point, he picked up a tiny foot and placed it against a ruler. "Thirteen millimeters," he announced, "which is consistent with 12 weeks of actual pregnancy." Later he held a tiny head. Its brain tissue will be sent to the National Institutes of Health for research on brain tumors. "The face looks like what it is, the human fetus. You can talk yourself into putting whatever value you want on it," he said. "It makes sense to me to put more value on it the further along you get in the pregnancy." Dr. “ X” abortionist Salon Magazine, Mothers who think, An intimate conversation with a woman on the front lines of America's most emotionally charged debate, by Camille Peri Quote: “ You look at the ultrasounds and there's a fetus with a heartbeat and then after the procedure, there's the fetus, usually in pieces, in a dish. It was alive one moment and it's not the next.” Frances Kissling former abortion clinic director The Village Voice: The Fetal Frontier, Pro-choice advocates wrestle with the uncomfortable, by Sharon Lerner: 12-7-2004 Quote: While Kissling says she supports a woman's right to have the procedure, Kissling says an honest emotional reaction to it would have helped the pro-choice effort. "It's gruesome," Kissling says of abortions performed late in pregnancy. "I think we serve ourselves well by saying that. We are so clinical and abstracted from these realities in our public presentations, it turns people off." With the bill requiring doctors to warn about fetal pain and offer fetal anesthesia coming down
the pike, Kissling sees another opportunity to show that people can support the right to abortion and care about the fetus at the same time. The standard approach for pro-choicers would be simply to shoot down the bill. But since there's the real possibility that fetuses feel pain (there's no scientific consensus on it yet), Kissling suggests instead trying to change the legislation to say that fetal anesthesia should be respectfully offered as an option. "It's a way", she says, of honoring both law and morality. "And whether I'm going to be considered less pro-choice by my colleagues because I said this, we'll see." (Frances Kissling, directed an abortion clinic, got arrested protesting at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Washington, DC, helped found the National Abortion Federation and the Global Fund for Women, president of Catholics for a Free Choice). Gale McMahon abortion clinic nurse Harper’s Magazine: Gambling With Abortion Why both sides think they have everything to lose By Cynthia Gorney, 1-27-2005 Quote: “Having it (aborted baby) intact was a goal, so they could do that, and have this closure. I knew what it meant to these women, to be able to hold them (the aborted baby), and be able to coo over them (The aborted baby) and say goodbye. It was profound. I got material, and sewed little tiny sheaths, and we got tiny hats we could dress them in. I would put them on a clean cloth, and I would swathe them. Many women spent hours in there (after they aborted the baby), and showed them to their other children. It was always treating the (aborted) babies (that she helped abort) with the respect the parents would want them to.” (Gail was also the wife of abortionist James McMahon ). GiGi abortion medical student Blog online: gdeuce13.blogspot.com/2005/07/I-love-uteri.html Quote: “…THEN we looked at what was sucked out after they wash out the blood and strain it. The first patient I saw was at 11 weeks and some days. I completely wasn't expecting it, but there were fetal parts. Like hands. And legs. And kidneys. It was pretty shocking. But, of course, after the initial shock, I was fine. I was actually fascinated by it. Until I saw one with a face. Complete with eyeballs. Told you it was graphic. It's amazing to think that all of this can form within only a couple of weeks. You go from someone who's only about 7 weeks along and you can't make out anything, to someone who's at 9 weeks, and oh, there are some fingers. The human body is amazing. Apparently, at some point this month, I'll be doing the abortions. Still not sure how I feel about it. From the doctor side of it, I'm absolutely thrilled because it's more experience. From the personal side of it, I'm really not sure. It's hard to say because now that I can I have some medical background, I have to assimilate that with how I feel. Will have to think about that some more.” (Written on her blog: describing the first time she witnessed an abortion, at a
Planned Parenthood Clinic). Ida Dupont abortion clinic employee Interview posted on: Gothamist.com: 12-1-2004, Interview by Raphie Frank Quote: “The second trimester abortions were hard for me to deal with because they are admittedly a bit gory…I remember witnessing one of these procedures and being disturbed at the sight of parts of a fetus being removed.” Joyce Arthur pro-abortion author What Pro-Choice Really Means, by Joyce Arthur, Pro-Choice Action Network Quote: “The anti-choice often accuse us of trivializing the fetus - for example, we apparently call fetuses "lumps of tissue" or "blobs." But the only time I've ever heard the word "blob" used to describe a fetus or embryo is when the anti-choice attribute it to us. No matter how much they want us to use that word or similar terms, the abortion services community is well aware of what is really inside a pregnant woman. But so is almost everyone over the age of six.” Marie board member, for online nonprofit pro-abortion group Las Vegas Weekly: Abortion pill slips under radar, By Kate Silver: 6-28-2005 Quote: "I had a surgical abortion in 1993, which was absolutely the most horrible experience in my life." Marva abortion clinic employee Newsday (New York)Abortion in America, Focus on the City; Sanger Center's Moments of Pain, Conflict, Relief: 4-5-1989 Quote: "When you see the larger body parts it's a little bit sickening." Merle Hoffman abortion clinic owner, Choices On the Issues Magazine, The Archive, On The Issues online: Vol. XII, 1989, Abortion, “The Issue” by Merle Hoffman Quote: “The first time I witnessed a second trimester abortion on a 14 year old girl and I wrote, "Now the 'abortion issue' comes home to me and CHOICES... hard. It's not just 'blood and tissue'
anymore." Ron Fitzsimmons executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers ABC Nightline, Transcript # 97022601-J07, 2-26-1997 Quote: “Well, when the woman comes in, the fetus is alive. But the doctors that we represent will affect fetal demise in utero. So that means the baby is effectively, you know, dead in the uterus and then the procedure starts.” Sabina abortion medical student Working in an abortion clinic, Sabrina has adapted to the working in the clinic and understands both sides of the abortion debate:thesite.org/uk Quote: “I work in an abortion clinic…An early abortion, i.e. less than 11 weeks, can be completed in five minutes if the patient is under a general anesthetic. Later abortions take up to half an hour, and I won't pretend, it's pretty difficult to watch. I must admit, I almost passed out watching one of the later abortions, but I'm glad I saw it... I'm in a difficult position because I do have sympathy for the fetuses that are aborted at such late stages...” Sallie Tisdale abortion clinic nurse Tisdale, Sallie, "We do abortions here: A nurse's story", Harpers Magazine, October, 1987 as printed in Contemporary Women's Issues, Feminism and Nonviolence Studies Association, Inc. Quote: “How can you stand it? Even the clients ask. They see the machine, the strange instruments, the blood, and the final stroke 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.” Stuart Campbell abortionist and professor The Tablet, The hidden wonder of new life: 10-7-2004 Quote: “Even a fetus lying there dead doesn’t convey the horror that one experiences seeing a baby moving its arms and legs, opening its mouth, sucking its thumb, and then thinking, gosh, somebody wants to, you know… It looks so vital. It has changed my view. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.” (Campbell is a pioneer of pregnancy scans, he regularly performed abortions, until he left the NHS practice.)
William Rashbaum abortionist, NY city The Boston Phoenix: Cruel to be kind, In the twilight of his career, a late-term-abortion doctor tells all: December 5-11:2003/ http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multipage/documents/03376 466.asp Quote: One of Rashbaum's former interns remembers watching him do a D&E on welldeveloped twins. "He intently leaned in closely and methodically pulled piece after piece of the fetuses out of the mother’s uterus, ignoring the attending staff’s whispers of horror — "It’s twins. It’s twins" — to each other." The intern reacted violently, running home, throwing up, and asking herself, "Is this right? Rashbaum pisses people off with his cranky, despotic ways, but the other doctors are relieved he’s around to do a job they don’t want.”
