Former abortion workers reveal ‘abortion counseling’ is really manipulation

Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson edited a book called “The Walls are Talking,” which presented stories from former abortion workers. One of the common themes in these stories is how workers were expected to convince ambivalent women to go through with their abortions. The workers were told by their facility administrators to make abortion look like the most attractive option for pregnant women. They were supposed to pressure women into having abortions.

It is not hard to guess why abortion facility administrators want women to go through with abortions. These facilities are not charities, but businesses which make a profit selling abortion. If a woman changes her mind and leaves the facility, the facility loses money. Each woman who decides against abortion represents lost revenue for the facility.

In “The Walls are Talking,” an abortion worker recalled a pregnant woman who came to the abortion facility and asked many questions about her baby. The woman spoke only Spanish. The worker described their conversation:

Shockingly, the worker acknowledged that the abortion would kill a human being. This is not standard procedure in most abortion facilities. In fact, many former workers have said they were strongly discouraged from ever using the word “baby” or in any way humanizing the preborn.

READ: Stunning photo of baby at 7 weeks shares humanity of preborn children

The former worker said her coworkers were not happy that she spent so much time answering the woman’s questions:

Trained to sell abortions, not to counsel

In the book, another worker claims the abortion facility director actually tested the workers to make sure they were effectively pressuring women into abortions. She says:

Former Planned Parenthood director Sue Thayer describes how she convinced women to schedule abortions:

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Another abortion worker, Laurel Guymer, actually left the abortion industry because she was troubled by the way her colleagues pressured women to abort:

Preying on women’s fears using psychologically manipulative tactics

Accounts of biased counseling and aggressive sales techniques are not just found in pro-life sources. For her 2017 book, author and researcher Bayla Ostrach interviewed abortion workers and women seeking abortions. She wrote about an abortion facility worker named Jorge. Jorge “counseled” women who were ambivalent and upset. Ostrach writes that Jorge “routinely tells women, ‘if this were a pregnancy you could continue, you wouldn’t be here crying, right?’”(5)

Rather than trying to ascertain why the woman is crying and how she really felt, this abortion “counselor” used the woman’s own emotional distress to convince her to abort.

Researcher Peter Korn sat in on abortion “counseling” sessions. Korn also records a conversation between an abortion worker and a young woman named Tiffany. Tiffany was 14 weeks pregnant and uncertain about having an abortion. The abortion worker says:

Tiffany did, reluctantly, agree to abort.

Lying about fetal development facts

Baby Development Week by Week

Korn also described one conversation between an abortion worker and a pregnant woman:

Of course, anyone with any understanding of biology knows a preborn baby is not “the same thing” as his mother. The baby is not part of the woman’s body. With different DNA and a separate circulatory system, the tiny baby in a woman’s womb is a unique human being.

Also, it is a scientific fact that a preborn babies heart begins to beat in the third week after conception. This has been known for many years. You can watch the heart of a preborn baby beating at just four and a half weeks here.

Based on these testimonies and accounts, as well as others, it is clear that abortion facilities often pressure ambivalent women into “choosing” abortion. One wonders how many of these women later come to regret their “choice”, which was made under duress.

READ: Abortion worker pressured by other workers to abort her wanted baby

Notes

1. Abby Johnson The Walls Are Talking: Former Abortion Clinic Workers Tell Their Stories (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2016) 130

2. Abby Johnson, 130

3. Abby Johnson, 98

4. Melinda Tankard Reist Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief after Abortion (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2007) 170

5. Bayla Ostrach Health Policy in a Time of Crisis: Abortion, Austerity, and Access (New York: Rutledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2017) 52