Midwife admits to desensitization in order to survive abortion work
In her 2024 book, British midwife Juno Carey wrote about working in two abortion facilities over the years.
Carey worked as a midwife before taking her first job in the abortion industry. In Great Britain, abortion is legal through the 24th week of pregnancy, or until birth if the baby is disabled or the pregnant person’s life is in danger. The first abortion Carey witnessed was a late-term one at 20 weeks.
She admits it gave her nightmares.
The woman’s husband had just died, and she didn’t feel able to raise the baby without him. In the throes of grief, this woman made a decision that might later haunt her. In the weeks, months, and years after the abortion, she might find herself grieving not only for her husband but for her aborted baby as well.
The abortionist committed the abortion by the D&E (Dilation and Evacuation) method. In the video below, former abortionist Kathi Aultman describes this type of abortion. I wrote about Aultman’s pro-life conversion in a previous article on Substack.
The video illustrates how babies aborted by D&E are dismembered with forceps and pulled from their mothers’ bodies in pieces. So, Carey witnessed the dismemberment of a fully formed baby.
She was deeply affected by what she saw.
Carey says that as she watched the abortion, she “felt heat rise in my body until my head was on fire.”
She describes what she witnessed:
The surgeon began the procedure and, as I watched, the twenty-week fetus being aborted came out in pieces.
It was almost unbearably distressing to see and recognize body parts. I thought to myself, Isn’t there a better way? The answer to which I later learnt was ‘No. There isn’t.’
Not to be obvious, but there is a better way. It’s not to abort at all—to let the baby live. The better way would be to give the pregnant person the emotional and material support she needs to find a better alternative, one both she and her baby can live with.
Carey describes nearly passing out as the procedure continued:
My eyes started to lose focus, and I knew I had to sit down and get my head below my knees to avoid fainting…
I began to worry that perhaps I simply could not cope with this. That I wasn’t strong enough. Somehow, I got ahold of myself and miraculously made it through without losing consciousness.
She says, “I knew it was a big moment that I would remember for the rest of my life.”
After the abortion, Carey needed to sit down with someone she describes as “one of my mentors” in the abortion business and discuss her reaction. She was deeply troubled and unsure if she could work in the abortion industry.
Carey says her mentor told her, “You had this bodily reaction because the only time your mind is expecting to see body parts is during a trauma. That’s why you reacted the way that you did.”
This left Carey feeling “comforted that my reaction was completely normal.”
But she still wasn’t sure if she could tolerate seeing abortions regularly.
Carey asked her mentor how, as an abortion provider, she could cope with seeing abortions so often. The woman had worked in the abortion industry for years. How could she stand seeing so many abortions and aborted babies? Carey describes her mentor’s response:
She paused, drawing a breath, before saying, “Because I had exactly the same reaction to my first surgery. I had terrible nightmares, but they faded, and it does get easier. You won’t always feel this way.”
If you beat your conscience into submission, and harden yourself to violence, exposing yourself to it again and again, you will eventually become desensitized. This is what happened to Carey’s “mentor.”
And, eventually, it happened to Carey as well. By the time she wrote her book, Carey had been working in the abortion industry for decades. She had seen many, many abortions at different stages of development, and it had become nearly routine for her.
After talking to the more experienced abortion provider, Carey reflected on the conversation. She says:
That was the moment I realized I could be under no illusions as a provider of abortion care. I had to face up to the fact that, in many circumstances, I would be ending what would otherwise become a life, a bloody reality that would be hard to take…
If I truly believed this was a right and necessary thing to do, I would have to push myself beyond my discomfort. I reconciled myself to this painful reality by remembering that women need this help.
Carey says she realized that the only way she could cope with providing abortions was by “putting the pregnant person and their needs at the centre of my work” and ignoring the baby. She believes that by assisting with abortions, she is providing pregnant people with “the least bad option.”
Carey’s candid account reveals how gruesome abortion procedures are, especially late-term ones. It also shows how a person’s first, natural reaction to violence can be overcome by desensitization, and how people can rationalize inhumanity.
Source: Juno Carey A Necessary Kindness: Stories from the Frontline of Abortion Care (London: Atlantic Books, 2024) 37-41
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