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Former [Abortion] Clinic Counselor: "We Would Find Women's Weaknesses and Work on Them"
LiveActionNews ^ | 6/3/14 | Sarah Terzo

Posted on 06/04/2014 7:26:18 AM PDT by wagglebee

Former clinic worker Deborah Henry gave this testimony at a conference sponsored by the Pro-Life Action League.

Henry started off working at a clinic that did not perform abortions, but did give referrals to abortion providers. In her own words:

After a while, I wanted to get out of the clinic because they just weren’t paying enough money. A doctor offered me a position in his own private practice in Livonia, so I took the position. He explained to me that they did the abortions, but again, I didn’t think too much of it. At that time, I was pro-choice, or pro-abortion as now I would say it, and I didn’t really think much about what abortion was. I used to think of abortion as eliminating a problem, instead of killing a baby.

In retrospect, Henry feels that many of the reasons women gave for having their abortions were “unreal.” She refers to herself as being “brainwashed”:

The reasons that women had for having an abortion were totally unreal. I can see this now; but at that time, the brainwashing helped me to understand why they had to have these abortions. We were told as medical assistants that we were there to help the women, no matter what the reasons were.

In her testimony, Henry revealed that one woman came in for 9 abortions.

Under the pretext of “counseling,” the clinic workers would pressure ambivalent women to have abortions:

Many women could not afford to have babies, so we would use examples–like the price of babies’ shoes, the price of clothing, how much it cost to raise a baby. If they weren’t finished with their education, the hindrance it would have on their education, how they would have to find a baby sitter, who was going to take care of that baby for them? We would find their weaknesses and work on them.

Clinic worker Kathy Sparks revealed similar tactics in the abortion clinic where she worked.

The clinic workers also sugarcoated the abortion procedure:

After the basic questions, they were told briefly about what was to happen to them after the procedure. All they were told about the procedure itself was that they would experience slight cramping similar to menstrual cramps, and that was it. They were not told about the development of the baby. They were not told about the pain that the baby would be experiencing or the physical effects or the emotional effects that it would have on them. They had no idea who was going to be there to help them when they fell apart afterwards. They were taken into the room then, and, as I said, there was no counseling done. These women basically had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They were just told to lay on the table; they were undressed.

Henry’s clinic performed both first trimester suction curettage abortions, where the baby is torn apart via suction machine, and 2nd trimester D&E’s, where the baby is dismembered with forceps. You can see diagrams of suction abortions and D&E abortions at the Priests for Life website. You can also see the remains of unborn babies aborted by suction at 9 weeks and the remains of D&E abortions done at 20 weeks (warning: these are very graphic pictures).

The counselors referred to unborn babies as “clusters of cells” or the old abortion clinic standby, “products of conception”:

Some of the women were a little apprehensive about it. We were told that in explaining to them that we could never use the word “babies.” It was always tissues, tissues of cells or clusters of cells or products of conception.

Henry goes on to say:

The women were never given any type of alternatives to the abortion. It was just automatically assumed that they knew what they wanted. They were never told about adoption agencies. They were never told about people out there who were willing to help them–to give them homes to live in, to provide them with care and even financial support. The euphemisms that are used — clusters of cells, products of conception, or just plain tissue — are all lies.

I have been there, and I have seen these totally formed babies as early as 10 weeks, a couple of inches long with a leg missing, or with their head off. These are things that I have to live with now. I know the Lord has forgiven me, but I can never erase those things from my mind. The sounds of those bones breaking, The sight of those babies.

Henry reveals that many of the women cried after their abortions. She describes what the abortionist’s wife said to them by way of “comfort.”

One of the famous lines that the doctor’s wife used to use after the procedure, when she would come in and the women were crying–she would pat them on their shoulder and say: “It’s okay, honey, everybody makes mistakes–that’s why pencils have erasers.” How can you erase that thought from your mind? Where is she going to be when that woman is threatening suicide because she realizes that she killed her child, and there is no bringing that baby back. Where is she going to be then? She is off, counting her money and buying new cars, or whatever. She doesn’t care.”

You can read Deborah Henry’s full testimony here.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; moralabsolutes; prolife; yesterday
We were told that in explaining to them that we could never use the word “babies.” It was always tissues, tissues of cells or clusters of cells or products of conception.

Because when they acknowledge it's a baby, they start to realize that it's MURDER.

1 posted on 06/04/2014 7:26:18 AM PDT by wagglebee
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To: Coleus; narses; cpforlife.org; NYer; Salvation
Pro-Life Ping
2 posted on 06/04/2014 7:27:07 AM 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.

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3 posted on 06/04/2014 7:27:55 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

Exactly. It’s a big business, after all, and besides, how else will we eradicate minorities and other “inferiors”?


4 posted on 06/04/2014 7:41:10 AM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: wagglebee

You can take a life in the line of duty, in war and in peace.

These people are murderers, mass murderers. Unless and until they repent, they will be judged accordingly by our Creator. The Author of life.


5 posted on 06/04/2014 7:43:21 AM PDT by the anti-mahdi
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To: wagglebee

They are salesmen and their product is murder for hire.


6 posted on 06/04/2014 7:51:00 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: wagglebee

I don’t know how anyone would ever be able to get the sights and sounds that Henry describes out of their mind, even for a day. Perhaps by sharing her experiences and educating others to what a horror abortion really is, Henry will find some peace. I know that the lies are still being told, that the brainwashing continues, because one of my nieces recently posted on Facebook her anger toward those who are anti-abortion.


7 posted on 06/04/2014 7:54:29 AM 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

They may say that, but in reality they know exactly what they are dealing with. Interestingly a couple of years ago I had the opportunity to carry on an online conversation with one of the biggest abortion activist from early 70’s NY. During our third email she admitted they always knew it was a baby, but felt that the woman’s life and future was of higher priority than the life of the unborn child and played that card when convincing the woman to make the decision. She also admitted that the abortion side would eventually lose the battle if they didn’t adjust their view of all or nothing. She said medical science was changing the argument for a lot of women and the abortion industry had to understand that or they would be marginalized to a fringe group supported only by a complicit press. For making that point she was thrown under the bus by many in the industry.

It was a very interesting and enlightening conversation. She was considerate, honest and very open to a rational unemotional discussion. As a side note this woman was the person who ran the clinic my girlfriend/late wife and I went to in 1971. Biggest mistake we ever made, but when you are 19, and scared you can be talked into a lot of things by persuasive people. It was me against her and sadly she prevailed by tell my gf/w that the abortion was a reset button on life. Only after the procedure does the young woman find out that isn’t true.

We both paid a huge price for our mistake. My wife lost her opportunity to live a full life dying at 46 from aggressive, what I believe to be, abortion induced breast cancer, in many respects I lost the love of my life twice because she was never the same beautiful, trusting, loving young woman after the abortion and then of course she died way to early and lastly because of the procedure we were never able to get pregnant again.

Interestingly my wife spent the last three years of her life working as a counselor at a pediatric hospice helping parents deal with the pending loss of a child. As for me I have become annoyingly pro-life.


8 posted on 06/04/2014 8:16:12 AM PDT by redangus
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To: trisham
one of my nieces recently posted on Facebook her anger toward those who are anti-abortion.

The anger is necessary to obscure the truth of infanticide.

9 posted on 06/04/2014 8:56:46 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom (A goverrnment strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.)
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To: ConservingFreedom
The anger is necessary to obscure the truth of infanticide.

*******************************

Yes, I think so, too.

10 posted on 06/04/2014 9:01:48 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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