Abortion workers share their stories with Feminists for Life

[Today’s guest post by Sarah Terzo is part of our paid blogging program.]

In the latest issue of Feminists for Life’s The American Feminist magazine, a number of former abortion workers told their stories for an article entitled “An Insider’s Look Into the Abortion Industry”. I recommend reading the full article. One thing that stood out for me was how frequently former abortion workers admitted to lying to the women who came in for abortions.

Clinic worker Julie explained how clinic workers kept women from seeing their aborted children. Most first trimester abortions are done by suction aspiration. (At this time, only 22% of abortions are done using the chemical method, sometimes known as RU-486.) In a suction aspiration abortion, a tube attached to an instrument called a cannula is inserted into the woman’s uterus. The tube is also attached to a suction machine and a small jar. When the suction machine is turned on, the force of the suction tears apart the preborn child and pulls the pieces into the clear glass jar.

In Julie’s clinic, the workers wanted to prevent women from seeing the contents of that jar. They didn’t want the women to catch a glimpse of the baby’s remains. In order to hide the blood and body parts from women, the clinic covered the jar with a “cute calico cover.” This way, a woman would not catch a glimpse of a dismembered arm or leg.  The clinic could maintain the deception that an unborn baby is only an unformed mass of tissue.

A former abortion worker at a different clinic spoke about another lie clinic workers told women: “We would lie to them! We lied to patients all the time!… People asked, “What’s going to happen to my baby [after the abortion]?” We were told to tell them whatever made sense, that it’s like if someone is in a bad car accident and lost a leg. It’s medical waste and it goes into an incinerator… We didn’t use biohazard bags back then.”

Instead, they ground up the remains and sent them down the sewer.

Women do ask clinic workers what they do with the bodies of the babies. In the book Pregnancy and Abortion Counseling, a manual for abortion workers, it says that “How do they get rid of it, it is burnt?” is one of the “difficult” questions a woman might ask (p.94).

Margo also commented on the guilt she felt at being involved in abortion for so long. She laments that she participated in “tens of thousands” of abortions and says, “It literally took my breath away… I helped murder almost a football stadium of people.”

It is very valuable when abortion workers tell their stories. Due to the emotional trauma of coming to terms with their actions, many abortion workers have a hard time discussing what went on in their clinics. Those who do speak out should be supported by the pro-life movement and lauded for their courage.

Pro-lifers need to keep educating people about abortion and what it does to preborn babies and their mothers. The abortion business will not tell women the truth.