What is abortion? Planned Parenthood’s euphemisms vs. reality

Planned Parenthood is the biggest provider of abortions in the United States.  The abortion chain committed 323,999 abortions in 2014 alone. On its website, Planned Parenthood advertises and describes the two most common surgical abortion procedures. Planned Parenthood tells the public and potential patients the following about an aspiration abortion, which is done before 16 weeks:

A speculum will be inserted into your vagina. Your health care provider may inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix. …

Either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus. Sometimes, an instrument called a curette is used to remove any remaining tissue that lines the uterus.

What could possibly be wrong with an operation that “gently empties your uterus”? The problem is, Planned Parenthood’s euphemisms don’t really tell the story of what happens in a first trimester abortion.

The uterus is indeed emptied in an aspiration abortion, but what it is emptied of is a preborn baby. And there is nothing gentle about the effect of the suction on the child. In the video below, you can see former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino illustrate how a first trimester aspiration abortion is done. You can see how this “gentle suction” dismembers a fully formed preborn baby and pulls the child out in pieces.

1st Trimester Surgical Abortion: Suction (Aspiration) D & C

However, if you are reluctant to trust someone who is pro-life, even though he has performed over 1,200 abortions, you can look to pro-choice feminist Wendy Simond’s book Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic, which you can find used on Amazon for a penny plus shipping and handling.

Simonds takes a strong pro-choice stand in her book. She has a chapter dedicated towards how to fight “antis” i.e., anti-choicers, meaning pro-lifers. But she also interviews clinic staff and records their rare moments of honesty.

On page 70 of the book, an abortion facility worker describes the aftermath of an aspiration abortion this way:

Following first trimester abortions, sterile room workers strain the contents of the aspirator jar and cannulae to isolate the fetal tissue,… After eight weeks gestation, weight should increase according to the doctor’s estimate of gestational length, and sterile room workers look for fetal parts. If they did not find evidence of the spine, skull, and upper and lower extremities, the client was called back into the examination room for a reaspiration.

Note that in Planned Parenthood’s description, there is no mention of the dismemberment of the baby. Only a uterus “gently emptied with suction.”

You can see with your own eyes what the “gentle suction” does to preborn babies here. (Warning: this link is very graphic.) 

Planned Parenthood’s website then goes on to describe a D&E or dilation and evacuation abortion. This type of abortion is performed after 16 weeks. Planned Paremthood’s website says:

Dilation and evacuation — is another kind of in-clinic abortion. D&E is usually performed later than 16 weeks after a woman’s last period….

Your health care provider will inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix. Medical instruments and a suction machine gently empty your uterus.

In reality, the abortionist tears apart the baby with forceps, pulling out first an arm, then a leg, then other parts. The skull is crushed and removed. See the diagram below:

Here is Dr. Levatino’s testimony.

2nd Trimester Surgical Abortion: Dilation and Evacuation (D & E)

Wendy Simonds’ book also quotes an abortion worker describing a D&E. On page 96-97, abortion facility worker “Sarina” says:

I remember standing behind this woman’s shoulder [as she performed a D&E abortion] and thinking, I can’t do this …Features are discernible, you can count five fingers on a hand, and five toes on a foot. You know, all the organ systems are formed. You know, you can see ears as structures, and the nose and eyes as structures…I think the destruction is hard.

Yet Planned Parenthood refers to children with fingers, ears, and faces as “contents of the uterus.”

Why does Planned Parenthood withhold facts in this way? Perhaps because they know fewer women would have abortions if they were told the truth. Since a huge chunk of Planned Parenthood’s profits come from abortion, this would threaten their bottom line. Also, fewer members of the public might support abortion if they knew how brutal it is for preborn babies, as evidenced by reactions to Live Action’s Abortion Procedures project. In its endless battle to strike down every pro-life law and keep abortion unrestricted and unregulated, the public’s education on abortion would be a disaster.

Planned Parenthood can’t afford to tell the truth. It must hide the gruesome nature of abortion behind euphemisms in order to protect its bottom line and political aims.