Can’t Stay Silent: Abortion is not ‘compassionate care’

Abortion facilities often tout the “compassionate care” they allegedly provide. Carafem, Planned Parenthood, and countless independent abortion facilities advertise as much on their websites:

Abortion facilities and abortionists often speak about the abortion process in positive, even glowing terms.

Karishma Oza, patient director at Washington, D.C.’s DuPont Clinic, said in an interview on the Feminist Buzzkills podcast: “I think abortion in all trimesters is beautiful … [W]e serve people … with a whole lot of heart and compassion.” 

Abortionists also frequently portray themselves as honest sources of information and expert health professionals. Planned Parenthood’s website, for example, states: “Your local Planned Parenthood health center has compassionate, professional staff who can give you accurate information, non-judgmental support, and expert health care.”

But women’s actual abortion experiences often do not shape up to be compassionate, well-informed encounters with expert professionals concerned for their health. In fact, some women experience the exact opposite, as personal testimonies submitted to Live Action’s Can’t Stay Silent website reveal. 

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Linn, for example, shared:

When I went into Planned Parenthood for the pill abortion, I was told that I would pass ’tissue’ and have some cramping. That was a lie, I passed a whole baby in a sac. I will never forget that image. The second time I had an abortion I was 5 months pregnant and had to have the surgical. They never once asked me if I was being forced to have the abortion (which I was), they never told me what they were doing[;] I even said ‘I dont want to do this’ while crying uncontrollably[;] you know what they told me[?] ‘Shut up, it will be over real fast so shut up already[,] everyone can hear you.’

Jill’s experience was similarly devoid of compassion:

I had an abortion when I was 19 years old. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I cried the whole way there and the whole time I was there. … I remember going in to see the counselor before my procedure and I was still hysterical. She looked at me and said, ‘It’s nothing.’ I continued to cry into the procedure room and one of the assistants screamed at me, ‘Stop crying or we can’t do the procedure.’ It was literally one of the worst days of my life. Today, I know that it is not ‘nothing.’ I feel a deep sense of pain and regret over my decision.

Jaymee’s “health care professionals” were hardly supportive or caring. She stated, “Told the nurse I didn’t want an abortion. Doctor came in and told me not to ruin my life.”

And the information Becca got from the staff at the abortion facility she visited was neither expert nor honest. She said, “I was told at the clinic, assured by staff ‘the fetus wasn’t a baby yet just a clump of cells[.]’”

The firsthand stories of women who have actually experienced abortion highlight the fact that abortion “work” is not compassionate or caring — and exposes many other, ugly realities of the abortion industry.