Abortionist: “It made an awful lot of money”

[Today’s guest post by Sarah Terzo is part of our paid blogging program. Sarah is a pro-life atheist, a frequent contributor to Live Action News, a board member of the Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians, and the force behind ClinicQuotes.com.]

Pro-choice psychologist Magda Denes wrote a book on abortion, for which she observed abortions and interviewed clinic workers and abortion doctors. I quoted her here describing an aborted baby she saw at the clinic. Her book, In Necessity and Sorrow: Life and Death in an Abortion Hospital, was published decades ago, but much of what it has to say is still relevant today. There is a lot of valuable information in Denes’ book, including interviews with clinic workers and abortionists.

One abortionist who she interviewed was the Chief of Gynecological and Obstetrical Services at the clinic. He said:

I practice medicine not to make a living and yet I like to make money at it. We made a lot of money in abortions. I don’t really know why I did it. I sort of fell into it. I was the director of the service here, so when the abortion program came in I looked at it is sort of a challenge. We did set up a very good program. But then I could see from the point of view of management that they were less interested in the best program than in the best paying program. For the first two or three months I didn’t do any of the abortions… Then I suddenly realized I had all the headaches because whenever they ran into trouble I got involved. I took over gradually and worked two days a week and I found that I worked very hard, but it made an awful lot of money.

Abortion doctors still make a lot of money today, as more recent interviews show. The abortionist quoted in the above passage doesn’t seem to have set out to become an abortion provider. However, he found the work to be extremely lucrative. Although he insists that he does not practice medicine to make money, he admits that he likes the money that he makes. Also, he makes this “awful lot of money” by working only two days a week.

There is another disturbing admission in this quote. The abortionist says that management was not interested in the best program—i.e. the program offering the best health care for women—but in the best paying program. Apparently, the administration of the clinic put financial gain ahead of women’s health. Why else would he distinguish between the “best paying program” and what he characterizes as the “best program”?

Magda Denes, PhD. In Necessity and Sorrow: Life and Death in an Abortion Hospital (New York: Basic Books Inc.) 1976.