{"id":181942,"date":"2018-04-30T12:33:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T16:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=181942"},"modified":"2018-04-26T19:56:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T23:56:55","slug":"abortion-worker-woman-line-item","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-worker-woman-line-item\/","title":{"rendered":"Former abortion worker: Every woman just ‘a line item on our budget sheet’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In October of 2015, former Planned Parenthood<\/a> director Abby Johnson shared the story of an abortion<\/a> worker who quit. The worker decided to leave her job when she realized that the abortion facility was not helping women, but betraying them. The worker contacted Johnson’s organization\u00a0And Then There Were None<\/a>,\u00a0which reaches out to abortion workers and offers them support when they leave the industry.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t see her as a person.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The worker gave her testimony<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I remember our abortionist joking about how \u2018stupid\u2019 the women were who came into our clinic. He would tell us to make sure and \u2018shut them up\u2019 during the abortion. He said that he didn\u2019t want to hear the \u2018stupid things that came out of their mouths.\u2019 One day, he was talking about these women in a particularly vile way and I sat there listening to him realizing that I was no better than he was. I wasn\u2019t standing up for these women. I wasn\u2019t defending them. In fact, I had become a traitor to women by not defending their dignity. I knew from that day forward that I would begin to stand up for women in crisis. But I knew that I couldn\u2019t just care for a woman without also caring for her unborn baby.<\/p>\n

When I told my coworkers that I was leaving, one of them actually called me a \u2018traitor.\u2019 She said that by not advocating for abortion, I was standing against women. I told her that it was the abortion industry who was betraying women\u2026every single woman that came in for our \u2018services\u2019 was being betrayed by us. We didn\u2019t see her as a person. We saw her as a line item\u2026a tally on our budget sheet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although the abortion industry claims to \u201cempower women,\u201d this worker\u2019s facility does not sound like a very feminist place. The staff, and particularly the doctor, were dehumanizing women, not helping them. The abortionist clearly had great contempt for the women coming to see him. He is no champion of women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

“I remember feeling like I was on an assembly line.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many women have reported negative experiences in abortion facilities. They tell of workers who were cold and uncaring, abortionists who were rude, and facilities that rushed them through their abortions with little concern for their well-being.<\/p>\n

One example<\/a> is that of Annie. She describes her abortion experience:<\/p>\n

I remember feeling like I was on an assembly line. The doctor whooshed in and whooshed out. The procedure was pretty quick, and it hurt a little bit. I felt like I was going to throw up afterward and I told the nurse and she gave me a little tray but I really needed just a few minutes in that room just to calm my stomach and calm myself and I felt like they really just wanted me out of there to get the next person in.<\/p>\n

Afterward I was sent to the recovery area\u2026 There was this woman on my left who was just sobbing and sobbing\u2026 I wish I could have talked to the women in the recovery area and all the people who worked there would just disappear. We were going through the same experience but we were totally isolated. They are giving you cookies and water and dealing with you on a physical level, but every woman in the room was going through an emotional experience, and none of us is going to turn to the person next to us and talk about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The abortion was rushed and the staff was indifferent, essentially treating women “like cattle,” as some former Planned Parenthood managers have phrased it. There was no real care from any of the abortion facility employees. Instead, the women were left feeling isolated in the recovery room, each locked in her own private pain.<\/p>\n