{"id":183814,"date":"2018-06-18T13:21:56","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T17:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=183814"},"modified":"2018-06-18T15:23:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T19:23:50","slug":"four-themes-abortion-industry-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/four-themes-abortion-industry-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Four common things experienced by abortion industry workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over the years, a number of abortion workers have left the abortion industry and come forward with their stories. These testimonies reveal many things about what goes on in abortion facilities, and have some common themes.\u00a0Former abortion worker Dina Madsen spoke<\/a> at a conference sponsored by the Pro-Life Action League, called \u201cAbortion: The Inside Story<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0First, Madsen talked about how she viewed abortion before going to work at the facility:<\/p>\n

I had a couple friends in high school who had had abortions, and I had a pregnancy scare myself when I was an adolescent, that was the first thing that came to my mind. I never thought about having the baby. I just took it as the general consensus, as the general population does, that it is a choice\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So Madsen had no objection to abortion when she first took the job. She was hired at the facility even though she had no medical training or background. The only quality the facility looked for was that a new employee was supportive of abortion.<\/p>\n

READ: Post-abortive clinic worker sees abortion aftermath: ‘It was gruesome’<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Many abortion workers notice common themes among the industry, as noted below.<\/p>\n

Common theme #1:<\/strong><\/u> Witnessing the high number of post-abortive women working in the abortion industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many workers at Madsen’s facility had undergone abortions themselves \u2013 some, Madsen says, had many, even eight or nine of them. Madsen is not the only former worker to talk about the high number of post-abortive women in the industry. Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson has stated<\/a> that 70 percent<\/strong> of workers at Planned Parenthood are post-abortive.<\/p>\n

Former abortion worker Jewels Green<\/a> was suffering from guilt and grief over her own abortion, which she was coerced into, when she took a job at an abortion facility. She wanted to help other women have a better experience than she had. She thought that if she could counsel them, they could come to a better understanding of whether or not they wanted an abortion. That way, they would not be coerced into abortions the way she had been. Green explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I was coerced into having an abortion and thought that by becoming a counselor at an abortion clinic, I could help others like me really talk out their feelings on the issue, truly explore their options, and help them make an honest, informed decision\u2013or help them leave an abusive situation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another possible motive behind post-abortive women’s desire to work in abortion facilities is the need to surround themselves with other people who support and promote abortion in order to validate their own abortions and repress any feelings of guilt or grief.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a>, former abortion worker Catherine Adair<\/a> spoke about post-abortive abortion workers. She was asked, \u201cDo you think some of, if not most, of abortion advocacy is rooted in a personal experience with abortion that is just not faced?\u201d<\/p>\n

She responded, \u201cAbsolutely. I think there\u2019s a tremendous amount of pain behind those clinic doors, both for the women going in there and for the women working there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Common theme #2:<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0Witnessing a\u00a0lack of respect for the value of human lives in the abortion industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dina Madsen says in her testimony that the general consensus among the workers at her facility was that the abortionists there were not good doctors:<\/p>\n

[T]hey [the abortion workers] wouldn\u2019t let any of these guys touch them with a 10-foot pole. Never. And yet every day they told these other women, \u201cThey\u2019re wonderful doctors; they won\u2019t hurt you. They\u2019re the best at what they do. He\u2019s really a nice man.\u201d And sometimes the women would ask, \u201cHave you ever had an abortion?\u201d And of course they wouldn\u2019t say, \u201cYes, but not by him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, these workers were not looking out for women. They had a coarsened attitude towards the women and did not have a great deal of respect for them. Madsen says:<\/p>\n

I have to admit, though, I didn\u2019t really have much sympathy for them [the women]. In my view, well, you got yourself into this position, tough it out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She says that at the time, she did not value her own life or the lives of others:<\/p>\n

So I was looking at these babies as something to be disposed of. I didn\u2019t see them as important. I didn\u2019t see life as important. I didn\u2019t value my own life, therefore how can I value anyone else\u2019s life? And if these women were stupid enough to get pregnant, then it was their fault. And that\u2019s how I felt. And that was how the majority of the staff felt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Common theme #3:<\/u> Seeing aborted baby body parts at abortion facilities<\/strong><\/p>\n

In summing up her time at the clinic, Madsen talks about deceiving women and identifying fetal parts:<\/p>\n

My official title at the mill was \u201chealth worker.\u201d I did various duties — lab work, leading groups (deceiving women about their abortions), \u201cadvocating\u201d (deceiving women during their abortions), and assisting the abortionist, which included helping during the abortion and checking to make sure all the parts of the baby were there in the collection jar afterwards. I will never forget, in the second-trimester abortions, holding those little feet up to a chart on the wall to make sure of the age of the baby.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

READ: Former abortion worker: Every woman just ‘a line item on our budget sheet’<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As Madsen said before, she had no medical training, yet she did lab work. And like many other former abortion workers, Madsen is haunted by memories of handling the body parts of aborted babies. Other former workers have written about<\/a> this as well<\/a>.\u00a0Abby Johnson wrote about<\/a> workers\u00a0having nightmares based on seeing the bodies of aborted children:<\/p>\n

Inside every abortion clinic across the country, someone is tasked to be the POC technician. Their job is to take everything suctioned out of the uterus during an abortion and reassemble the parts of the baby. We did this to ensure that the uterus was empty of all fetal parts. If something was left, it could create a potentially fatal infection for the woman\u2026.<\/p>\n

You may say, \u201cI can\u2019t imagine.\u201d No, I assure you that you can\u2019t. You can\u2019t imagine something so gruesome unless you have actually done it.<\/p>\n

You may say, \u201cI bet they have nightmares.\u201d Yes, \u201cthey\u201d do. Nightmares especially come after you leave the industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Common theme #4:<\/u> Witnessing or participating in the mistreatment and deception of abortion patients<\/strong><\/p>\n

Madsen’s comments about deceiving women visiting these facilities is also a common theme in the stories of former abortion workers. Catherine Adair has spoken about<\/a> lying to women about fetal development:<\/p>\n

We never discussed fetal development. The baby was referred to as the \u201ccontents of the uterus\u201d or a \u201cclump of cells.\u201d On the rare occasion a woman asked about the size of the baby, I would tell her it was about the size of the tip of my pencil, regardless of how many weeks into her pregnancy she was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are many\u00a0testimonies from women<\/a> about being lied to at abortion facilities.<\/p>\n

Madsen also discusses women who came in for repeat abortions:<\/p>\n

And every time she\u2019d come in for an abortion or a D&E, we\u2019d stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp \u2013 some of these charts were filled in on both sides. And the doctor would take a look at them and say, \u201cGee, if she tries real hard she can come in again before Christmas.\u201d And this is somebody who cares about women? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n