Secular Pro-Life
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Team
    • Mission and Vision
    • Stances
      • Abortion
      • Religion
      • Contraception
      • The Rape Exception
  • Content
    • Index
    • Blog
    • Myths
    • Research
      • Abortion Law and Abortion Rates
      • Abortion Law and Pregnancy Rates
      • Later Abortion
      • Embryonic Hearts
      • Abortion Views and Gender
    • Collections
      • For the biology textbook tells me so
      • Fixed that meme for you
      • They can hear you
      • Parents can hear you
      • Our children’s heartbeats
      • Becoming Pro-Life
    • Publications
      • Overview Brochure
      • Why Secular People Should Care
    • Store
  • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Donor Opportunities
    • Why support SPL?
  • Donate
  • Menu Menu

Silent Witness: The Baby in the Jar

September 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Uncategorized, Your Stories /by Guest Blogger

[Editor’s note: This article, originally posted on the Live Action blog, is by Secular Pro-Life member and former abortion worker Jewels Green. Jewels, who is a Christian, tells me that she wants her piece to serve as a reminder “that human dignity transcends religion.”]

So much became daily business-as-usual while working at an abortion clinic year after year: the tears, the shouting parents and boyfriends, the drivers who accompanied abortion patients who said they were “going out for a cigarette” and then disappeared and abandoned the pregnant mother they’d brought in, the jokes in the lunchroom about the one who showed up with multiple other kids in tow. (We did not allow children in the waiting room. Ever.)

Even the macabre became commonplace. The gallows humor I’d seen in movies about medical staff who work around disease and death day in and day out was right at home in an abortion clinic.

I vividly remember the cleaning lady who quit after finding a foot in the drain of one of the sinks in the autoclave room where the medical instruments were cleaned and sterilized after abortions. We all laughed and joked about it in the staff lounge for days and weeks afterward.

One time the power went out for hours and we were all explicitly instructed NOT to open the freezer where all of the medical waste was stored (read: dead baby parts in bio-hazard bags). Inevitably, someone did open that freezer and I will never, ever forget the stench of decaying human flesh for as long as I live—but we all laughed as we gagged and joked how at least “they” had it better in that non-functioning freezer because at least they couldn’t smell it.

One thing about the clinic never sat well with me, maybe because in my heart I always knew it was wrong. All of it was wrong, but especially this: the dead baby in the refrigerator in the lab. It was touted as a “teaching tool” and a “medical anomaly” that this perfect 10-week-old fetus “survived” the suction abortion procedure perfectly intact. So he (I thought I could tell it was a he) was given the dubious honor of being preserved in formalin in a translucent plastic jar in the laboratory refrigerator. I think we called him Charlie, but I can’t really remember. I know he had a name, but blissfully I have either forgotten or repressed it. But he was there every day I worked there.

Occasionally I peeked in on him, fascinated by the bizarreness of it all, but also with a scientific curiosity—every other abortion resulted in parts, bits and pieces of human in the jar—but this miraculous little creature was perfectly formed and complete in every way, with the heartbreaking exception that he was dead. There was no amniotic sac, no placenta, just a teeny-tiny perfect little baby floating in the jar. In the fridge. Forever a silent witness to the march of death of his immature brethren.

How I pray his soul rests in peace, and that someday he is given decent burial—or at the very least tossed out with the rest of the bio-hazardous waste, for that would be far more merciful than where I knew him to be.

Related Posts

Tags: abortion providers, her story
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
  • Link to Instagram
https://secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SecularProlife2.png 0 0 Guest Blogger https://secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SecularProlife2.png Guest Blogger2011-09-12 16:31:002022-02-25 17:23:35Silent Witness: The Baby in the Jar
You might also like
A Teen Mom Speaks: Your Life Isn’t Over!
To My Daughter’s First Parents
BloodMoney film not “overtly religious”
Male abuser gets abortion pills online; vendor shows no remorse
NARAL – Profits over Women’s Health
Women who’ve had abortions don’t owe loyalty to the abortion industry
Things we missed over Thanksgiving break
Quick News Roundup: 12/02/10
0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Follow via Email

* indicates required

Categories

  • Ableism
  • Administrative
  • Adoption and Foster Care
  • Biology
  • Bodily Rights
  • en español
  • Late-Term Abortion
  • Legislation, laws, and court cases
  • Medication Abortion
  • Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss
  • Personhood
  • Philosophy
  • Pro-Life Demographics
  • Rape Exception
  • Religion
  • Research
  • SPL Emails
  • Uncategorized
  • We Asked You Answered
  • Your Stories

Archive

As the national conversation on abortion intensifies, it’s more important than ever that we demonstrate that anyone can–and everyone should–oppose abortion. Thanks to you, we are working to change minds, transform our culture, and protect our prenatal children. Every donation supports our ability to provide nonsectarian, nonpartisan arguments against abortion. Please donate today.

DONATE
© Copyright 2023 Secular Pro-Life. All rights reserved. Website Design by TandarichGroup

Related Posts

Ten years later Life Matters Journal releases its first issue
Scroll to top