(Sarah Terzo – Substack) Author Dawn Kellum wrote a short memoir about her abortion called My Abortion and What NOBODY Told Me. The book is free on Kindle, and you can read it via the Kindle app, on any phone or device.
A Grieving Woman’s Warning
Kellum writes to other abortion-minded pregnant people, warning them about what might happen after their abortions. Here are some of her warnings:
You will need counseling after an abortion because it will affect you in every way imaginable. You will regret your decision for the rest of your life.
You will miss that child you aborted for the rest of your life.
It will be very hard to forgive yourself.
Having an Abortion is painful during and after… [Y]ou feel your insides literally being ripped out.
My bleeding was horrible and lasted many days.1
Kellum experienced all these things.
Tragically, Kellum’s abortion didn’t just kill one baby; it led to the deaths of nine others —ten preborn babies total.
This is because Kellum, due to the abortion facility’s negligence, developed a condition called RH incompatibility.
Medical Facts about RH Incompatibility
During birth, pregnancy, abortion, or miscarriage, red blood cells from the preborn baby can cross into the mother’s bloodstream. In most pregnancies, this isn’t a problem. But if the mother has blood that is Rh-negative, and her baby has blood that is Rh-positive, the mother will develop antibodies against the child.
These antibodies will remain in the mother’s body. In her next pregnancy, they will attack the red blood cells of the baby and destroy them. This can cause serious health problems in the baby. RH incompatibility can also cause miscarriages.
A shot of RhoGAM can prevent all of this. Routinely, when a pregnant person comes in for prenatal care or goes to the hospital after a miscarriage, they are given a blood test. If the blood test shows blood that is Rh-negative, doctors give them a shot of RhoGAM. The RhoGAM prevents the development of antibodies and protects future pregnancies.
The website Medline Plus says that a shot of RhoGAM should be given to every woman with an Rh-negative blood type “after a miscarriage or abortion.”
However, because of shoddy medical care in abortion facilities, many Rh-negative pregnant people don’t get a RhoGAM shot.
Medline Plus details some problems Rh incompatibility can cause in the baby:
- Brain damage because of high levels of bilirubin (kernicterus)
- Fluid buildup and swelling in the baby (hydrops fetalis)
- Problems with mental function, movement, hearing, speech, and seizures.
RH incompatibility can also cause miscarriages.
A Child with Serious Medical Problems
The abortion facility Kellum went to failed to give her a RhoGAM shot, even though she needed one.
After her abortion, Kellum met a man, fell in love, and married him. They wanted to start a family and began trying to conceive.
Kellum’s first child, though delivered alive, had serious health problems, including a condition called hemihyperplasia. Because hemihyperplasia can be caused by several different underlying conditions, it’s unclear if the Rh incompatibility was the cause.
Nine Miscarriages Following Her Abortion
However, after this baby was born, Kellum had nine miscarriages, one after the other.
It wasn’t until her 12th pregnancy that a physician realized she was a victim of Rh incompatibility. The doctor gave her a shot of RhoGAM, earlier in pregnancy than normally given, and she was able to have two more children who were both born healthy.
Kellum writes about the emotional impact the miscarriages and abortion had on her:
As I raise my children, I think, ‘What if?’ What would my aborted child or miscarried babies have looked like?…
Would they have looked more like me or their dad or maybe their grandma or granddad? …
How would they have interacted with their siblings? What would their first bike look like? What would have been their favorite food? What type of personality would they have had? …
There is not a single day that goes by that I don’t miss my baby that I aborted and the other 9 children who miscarried in my womb.2
Former Planned Parenthood Worker Reveals Neglect
Sadly, Kellum’s situation is not an isolated one. In a webcast sponsored by the group And Then There Were None, a former Planned Parenthood worker confessed that patients at the Planned Parenthood center where she used to work sometimes didn’t get the RhoGAM shots they needed.
Moreover, even when Planned Parenthood knew that post-abortive people left without a needed RhoGAM shot, they didn’t call them to come back. Planned Parenthood never followed up and contacted them. Instead, they left them with a ticking time bomb in their blood. These post-abortive people went on their way, never knowing that their future babies were in danger.
Why did this happen?
Rushing Pregnant People through the Clinic
Former abortion worker Jayne described how her Planned Parenthood center rushed patients through their abortions, trying to fit as many in each day as they could. The more abortions they could commit, the more money they would make.
Jayne describes the situation:
[A]t Planned Parenthood, because of the high volume and high-speed… you only have 45 minutes to see a patient…
So, if you’re in charge and you have your 10 patients, there’s no way that you’re going to—things are going to get missed. And in this case, many cases, many times these patients were leaving, and not being given that shot—the RhoGAM.
Faulty bloodwork Could Have Led to Tragedy
She tells the story of one woman. The woman had had her abortion and was leaving. Jayne handed her medicine and dismissed her. On her way out, the woman said that during a previous pregnancy, her doctor had told her she would always need a RhoGAM shot.
To Jayne’s credit, she didn’t simply dismiss the woman. Instead, she double checked the woman’s bloodwork. The bloodwork showed that the woman’s blood was Rh-positive—that she didn’t need the shot.
Fortunately, Jayne took the woman’s word over the faulty bloodwork. She repeated the test, running it correctly this time, and it verified that the woman needed RhoGAM. She got her shot. But if she hadn’t spoken up at the last minute, she wouldn’t have.
Jayne says, “You’re not even getting bloodwork that’s reliable.”
How many more women had faulty bloodwork and left without a RhoGAM shot? How many others had paperwork saying they needed the shot, but it was overlooked in the rush to get them out the door so the next abortion could be done?…
Continue reading the entire post at Sarah Terzo’s Substack.
Source: Dawn Kellum My Abortion and What NOBODY Told Me (2022) 2, 3
