{"id":95511,"date":"2016-06-03T10:31:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T14:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=95511"},"modified":"2016-09-01T15:36:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T19:36:40","slug":"abortion-facility-workers-we-were-trained-never-to-use-the-word-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-facility-workers-we-were-trained-never-to-use-the-word-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion facility workers: We were trained never to use the word ‘baby’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Pro-choice author Carole Joffe interviewed abortion facility\u00a0workers from several different clinics for her book The Regulation of Sexuality: Experiences of Family-Planning Workers<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the things Joffe\u00a0wrote about was the training new\u00a0staffers\u00a0went through to prepare them for working\u00a0with vulnerable women. \u00a0The training\u00a0emphasized what kind of\u00a0language workers\u00a0should use<\/a> with women considering abortion. Employees were trained to avoid using language that affirmed the humanity of the preborn.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026 A good deal of time was devoted to \u201cword sensitization\u201d \u2013 the need to choose one\u2019s words with extraordinary care when discussing the abortion procedure with clients.\u2026 The most interesting problem was how to refer to the product of the abortion.<\/p>\n

Although it was acknowledged that many clients would refer to this as the \u201cbaby,\u201d or the \u201cpregnancy,\u201d new counselors were, not surprisingly, urged not to use these charged terms, but instead to use the more neutral, though admittedly more awkward, \u201cproduct of conception\u201d or \u201ctissue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Clinic workers were, instead, instructed to use dehumanizing terms when referring to the babies about to be aborted.\u00a0 This use of euphemisms allowed them to obscure the truth and hide the baby\u2019s humanity.<\/p>\n

Even in the first trimester, a preborn baby has a heartbeat <\/a>and brainwaves<\/a>. By seven to eight weeks<\/a>, he or she has a human form with arms, legs, fingers and toes. Life, of course, begins weeks earlier, at the moment of conception, just like it says in these 41 medical textbooks and quotes from medical experts<\/a>. The abortion procedure doesn\u2019t remove\u00a0\u201ctissue\u201d\u2014\u00a0unless you take the view that human beings outside the womb are made of \u201ctissue,\u201d as well.<\/p>\n

To see what really happens in a first trimester abortion, watch this video of former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levantino explaining the most prevalent abortion procedure in the United States:<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5THDmys8z30]<\/p>\n

It is not surprising that facility\u00a0workers\u00a0don’t\u00a0 want to refer to the children they abort as \u201cbabies.\u201d Few people would like to admit that their job helps to\u00a0kill children. Words like \u201ctissue\u201d allow\u00a0the workers to distance themselves from what they are doing. It is a way for them to lie to themselves. They try to\u00a0convince themselves that they aren’t\u00a0involved\u00a0in outright murder.<\/p>\n

In addition to its effect on the abortion\u00a0worker, the use of dehumanizing terms, such as \u201ctissue\u201d and \u201cproducts of conception,\u201d make it emotionally easier for\u00a0women\u00a0to have abortions. The woman is assured that the being living inside her womb is not a baby, \u00a0just \u201ctissue.\u201d The thought of removing some tissue from the uterus is so much easier for most women than thinking of destroying a living human being.<\/p>\n

The women are deceived into thinking abortion is a benign procedure\u2014 just the removal of unimportant \u201cproducts of conception\u201d\u2014 not a life-altering act that kills their own children. Women are convinced to abort their babies, abortion\u00a0workers are allowed to hang on to their denial, and abortion facilities\u00a0make more money.<\/p>\n

There are many other accounts of abortion workers avoiding the word “baby,”<\/a> and giving biased, misleading “counseling.”<\/a>\u00a0 In Wendy Simonds’ book Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Simonds<\/a> words echo Joffe\u2019s:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Center staff members commonly said \u201cthe pregnancy,\u201d \u201cthe tissue,\u201d \u201cthe products of conception.\u201d \u201cFetal tissue\u201d was the most explicit term I heard health workers use with clients.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Former clinic workers have also said that they avoided the word \u201cbaby\u201d at all costs. For example, former clinic worker Deborah Henry said the following in a speech to pro-lifers:\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

We were told that in explaining to them that we could never use the word \u201cbabies.\u201d It was always tissues, tissues of cells or clusters of cells or products of conception. We would then start the procedure.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The abortion industry, indeed, which legalized abortion itself, survives on euphemisms and lies. The worst enemy of pro-choice activists and abortion providers is the truth. When we strip away the euphemisms, we see that the\u00a0real outcome of every abortion is the death of one human being\u00a0and the wounding of another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro-choice author Carole Joffe interviewed abortion facility\u00a0workers from several different clinics for her book The Regulation of Sexuality: Experiences of Family-Planning Workers. One of the things Joffe\u00a0wrote about was the training new\u00a0staffers\u00a0went through to prepare them for working\u00a0with vulnerable women. \u00a0The training\u00a0emphasized what kind of\u00a0language workers\u00a0should use with women considering abortion. Employees were trained to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":95347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[3099,1503,5118,1039,4976,1063,1106,4931,715,298],"yoast_head":"\nAbortion facility workers: We were trained never to use the word 'baby'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Author Carole Joffe interviewed abortion facility workers from several different clinics, who admitted they were counseled to avoid life-affirming language.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-facility-workers-we-were-trained-never-to-use-the-word-baby\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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