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Former Abortion Clinic Worker: “I Can Still Hear the Sounds of Babies’ Skulls Being Crushed”
Life News ^ | 10/28/14 | Sarah Terzo

Posted on 10/28/2014 11:59:41 AM PDT by wagglebee

(LiveActionNews) –On Wednesday, former Planned Parenthood director and pro-life activist Abby Johnson sent out a letter describing the retreat that her organization, And Then There Were None, recently held. Her letter is an eloquent plea to pro-lifers to support workers who are fleeing the abortion industry and suffering emotionally because of what they experienced.

She included some testimonies from the workers, including:

I can still hear the sound of babies’ skulls being crushed.

By its very existence, And Then There Were None gives a challenge to the pro-life movement – are we pro-life only for the babies, or are we pro-life for everyone – including those who have done things we find hard to understand?

Clinic workers react to abortion

A number of clinic workers have talked about the emotional difficulties of working in abortion clinics.

Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff of Roe V Wade who converted to the pro-life cause and wrote about her story in her book Won by Love, describes the toll that abortion took on the clinic workers:

When a later abortion was performed, workers had to piece the baby back together, and every major part–head, torso, two legs, and two arms –had to be accounted for. One of our little jokes at the clinic was, “If you ever want to humble a doctor, hide a leg so he thinks he has to go back in.” Please understand, these were not abnormal, uncaring women working with me at the clinic. We were just involved in a bloody, dehumanizing business, all of us for our own reasons. Whether we were justifying our past advocacy (as I was), justifying a previous abortion (as many were) or whatever, we were just trying to cope–and if we couldn’t laugh at what was going on, I think our minds would have snapped. It’s not an easy thing trying to confuse a conscience that will not stay dead.

The procedure McCorvey is describing sounds like a D&E (dilation and evacuation) abortion where the unborn baby is removed with forceps, piece by piece. It is an emotionally difficult procedure to perform or witness. In fact, shortly after this technique was developed, a practitioner read a paper at a meeting of the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians which said, in part:

When performing a D&E abortion, the gynecologist is aware of being the active agent in the procedure. On the one hand, the doctor is sparing the patient the pain and emotional distress of the amnio abortion. On the other hand, he or she is the one who is crushing and dismembering the fetus in a D&E procedure, which can be emotionally disturbing… As the doctor tends to take responsibility and assume guilt for the procedure, she or he may have disturbing and recurrent ruminations or dreams.… Because of these problems, it is important that participation in D&E abortions be entirely voluntary, and that doctors have a chance to talk over their feelings with understanding colleagues or counselors.

Some clinic workers have described nightmares they had about this type of abortion. A medical book aimed at potential abortion providers, says the following:

The two physicians who performed the D&E procedures…felt technically competent, but noted strong emotional reactions during or following the procedures, and occasional disquieting dreams.

In the same book, a nurse who assisted late term abortions said:

I dream about it…the abortions affect me personally. I know some day I will deliver and think of that. It’s changed my ideas.

In The Philadelphia Inquirer, an abortion doctor was quoted saying:

[D&E abortions are] far more psychologically traumatizing for the doctors … I can’t do them anymore.

Diane M Gianelli, in her article “Abortion Providers Share Inner Conflicts” published in American Medical News quotes a number of abortion providers talking about their ambivalence and emotional difficulties. She also quotes Terry Beresford, who trains abortion counselors for Planned Parenthood and other groups, saying:

Ambivalence is not a dirty word… Everybody has mixed feelings.

One clinic worker gives a possible reason why:

So by it looking like a baby, you’re associating it with yourself because…you used to be a baby, you used to be a fetus.

Studies on abortion providers

Few studies have been done examining the emotional effects of abortion on abortion providers. Reviewing two, pro-choice authors came to the following conclusion in a 1989 article in Social Science and Medicine:

Obsessional thinking about abortion, depression, fatigue, anger, lowered self-esteem, and identity conflicts were prominent. The symptom complex was considered “transient reactive disorder” similar to “combat technique.”

Ambivalent periods were characterized by a variety of otherwise uncharacteristic feelings and behavior including withdrawal from colleagues, resistance to going to work, lack of energy, impatience with clients and overall sense of uneasiness. Nightmares, images that could not be shaken and preoccupation were commonly reported. Also common was the deep and lonely privacy within which practitioners had grappled with their ambivalence.

The article also said that:

Particularly striking was the fact that discomfort with abortion clients or procedures was reported by practitioners who strongly supported abortion rights and expressed strong commitment to their work. This preliminary finding suggested that even those who support a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy may be struggling with an important tension between their formal beliefs and the situated experience of their abortion work.

More recently, a survey performed by Project Choice, was cited by Rachael McNair in her book Achieving Peace in the Abortion War, found that 38% of clinic workers polled had “moral concern” about what they were doing. This number may actually be higher; it is possible that some clinic workers did not want to admit to doubts in a survey put out by a pro-choice organization.

Rachael McNair’s book is a valuable resource and good reading for anyone who wishes to explore the topic of the effects of abortion on providers in more depth.

On leaving

I would like to reach out and out to any abortion provider, clinic worker, or abortion doctor who is reading this. You can get out and start a journey of healing. As Joy Davis, a former clinic worker , said:

I was making $115,000 salary at the clinics. Now I don’t earn a fraction of that. But you know what? I don’t care. I like who I am now. I can live with my conscience.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; moralabsolutes; prolife
On the other hand, he or she is the one who is crushing and dismembering the fetus in a D&E procedure, which can be emotionally disturbing...As the doctor tends to take responsibility and assume guilt for the procedure, she or he may have disturbing and recurrent ruminations or dreams.… Because of these problems, it is important that participation in D&E abortions be entirely voluntary, and that doctors have a chance to talk over their feelings with understanding colleagues or counselors.

So, Big Murder KNOWS they are killing babies and they KNOW that killing babies causes guilt, yet they still want to kill as many babies as possible.

1 posted on 10/28/2014 11:59:41 AM PDT by wagglebee
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To: Coleus; narses; Salvation
Pro-Life Ping
2 posted on 10/28/2014 12:00:11 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; AKA Elena; APatientMan; Albion Wilde; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]


3 posted on 10/28/2014 12:00:57 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
“I Can Still Hear the Sounds of Babies’ Skulls Being Crushed”

My only question for her is: If the sound of babies' skulls being crushed bothered you, why did you stay so long?

4 posted on 10/28/2014 12:07:30 PM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: wagglebee

Perhaps a former clinic worker could sue Planned Parenthood for mental anguish or PTSD?


5 posted on 10/28/2014 12:08:31 PM PDT by rfreedom4u (Texas isn't just a state. It's a state of mind!)
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To: wagglebee
...the doctor tends to take responsibility and assume guilt for the procedure...

If it was not inherently wrong then there would be no guilt.

The fact that guilt is there to be assumed should tell them something about what they are doing. It certainly told me something.

6 posted on 10/28/2014 12:12:10 PM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: WayneS
You'd be surprised.

One of the scariest things to realize is how thoroughly people can lie to themselves, insulate themselves from reality and deny self-evident facts. I not only thing "some" poor peripheral misled people do this, I think we all do this unless we experience a bg turn-around in our lives. People (meaning, yes, "our" kind of people) have a truly jaw-dropping capacity to settle into deception and stay there immobile for decades.

The stories I could tell...

7 posted on 10/28/2014 12:27:17 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness & gentleness.)
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To: wagglebee
Most of us want to look back with pride on our day's accomplishments.

You just have to wonder what these people look back on with pride at the end of their day.


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10/28/2014: LINK  LINK to regular sized version of Ramirez's latest, and an archive of his political cartoons.

In this political cartoon, Ramirez presents, "Ebola's Ode..."



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...this is a general all purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

8 posted on 10/28/2014 12:28:27 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Dunam, Duncan, man what infections these folks brought over.)
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To: WayneS

It seems there is a common thread in what they are saying. All I hear them say is the effect on “me” or “my feelings” or “I” had a bad dream.

I don’t hear any empathy for the murdered baby.


9 posted on 10/28/2014 12:30:32 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: wagglebee

This is extremely disturbing.


10 posted on 10/28/2014 12:36:06 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: wagglebee

Recently a judge went to prison for taking kickbacks from a private prison. He was putting kids in that prison that did not belong there.

I wonder how much did the judges that forced abortion on the whole country got from the abortion industry. Roe v. Wade did not take place in a vacuum.


11 posted on 10/28/2014 12:37:52 PM PDT by doomtrooper99 (Mr Truman, you did not finish the job)
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To: driftdiver

I think the guilt they are feeling is their empathy for the baby - whether they acknowledge it or not.


12 posted on 10/28/2014 12:38:08 PM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: wagglebee
What boggles my mind is why women who don't want their babies simply deliver them and give them away to adoptive parents ... even deliver early and give them away to adoptive parents.

That they'd prefer them DEAD than living with another family is a mental disorder.

I believe that these women think that aborting them makes them go away like a pimple. At some point they realize that little life and soul never goes away and it will always be your baby, albeit a dead one. And that you are still a mother of a baby you hired someone to kill.

I'm not saying anything that's not true either.

13 posted on 10/28/2014 12:40:08 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: wagglebee

I ran into four pro-abortion demonstrators today. I managed to keep my cool, and approached them with “I’m interested in what you’re saying” body language. Because I was in my business clothes, they looked a bit intimidated.

“Guys, do me a favor. Go to YouTube and look up 4D ultrasound. Then tell me that you’re pro-abortion.”

I turned my back and walked away. I didn’t hear the usual vituperation. The four of them only managed one inaudible comment before I was out of range.


14 posted on 10/28/2014 12:46:25 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: wagglebee

Not even the Carthaginians in all of their disgusting practices come even close to what “AMERIKA” has done to it’s own people.

This is about as satanic as it gets.


15 posted on 10/28/2014 12:54:45 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

Good for you!


16 posted on 10/28/2014 12:57:30 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
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To: wagglebee
Abortion clinics = Jeffery Domer is open for business.

A beating heart, dismembering arms and legs and the crushing of sculls; how can an aborted baby at that stage of development be considered a nonviable fetal mass? In truth, it can't! I pray for those babies who were never given the chance to breath even one breath of air before their lives were taken by the evil of this world.

17 posted on 10/28/2014 1:00:36 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: wagglebee

Planned Homicide worker....


18 posted on 10/28/2014 1:05:54 PM PDT by ExCTCitizen (I'm ExCTCitizen and I approve this reply. If it does offend Libs, I'm NOT sorry...)
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To: wagglebee

**Former Abortion Clinic Worker: “I Can Still Hear the Sounds of Babies’ Skulls Being Crushed”**

Oh, what a testimony!


19 posted on 10/28/2014 2:48:31 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: wagglebee
Clinic Worker:

“So by it looking like a baby, you're associating it with yourself because…you used to be a baby, you used to be a fetus.”

Pray for the conversion of many more abortion clinic workers.

20 posted on 10/28/2014 2:53:35 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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