A Walk Through An Abortion Clinic

A WALK THROUGH AN ABORTION CLINIC By Carol Everett, copyright 1991

"Problem Pregnancy? Considering Abortion? Pregnant?"

A woman is concerned that she might be pregnant. Perhaps her period is two weeks late. For some reason, she is interested in exploring her alternatives to a problem pregnancy. She calls the number from the abortion clinic advertisement, just to ask some questions. The telephone is answered by an abortion salesperson who calls herself a "counselor." She only sells one product-abortion. The abortion clinic makes no money if a pregnancy is continued in any manner! The counselor has had extensive training to "help" this woman with "her problem."

The counselor asks the frightened woman what the first day of her last normal period was, and the woman figures the date. The counselor says, "You are 6 weeks pregnant." The woman is frightened by this; after all, the expert (counselor) has just confirmed her worst fear-she is pregnant!

Next the counselor asks, "Is this good or bad news?" Women who are happy about being pregnant do not call abortion clinics, so the answer is, "Bad news." The counselor moves in. "No one needs to know; we can take care of your problem without anyone's knowledge." Then the counselor searches. What is the reason this woman does not want this baby? The counselor must know in order to use that fear in her selling techniques! When the woman tells the counselor why her pregnancy is not convenient, the counselor continues the sale of her product.

"Does the father know?" They never call the mother, "a mother," or the baby, "a baby," but the male involved is the father. Subconsciously, the counselor is encouraging the woman to blame the man for this problem. "Put all your guilt, anger, frustration on the 'father.' You (the woman) are not to blame, only the father."

Two steps are left in the sales process, and the next one is the money! If the woman doesn't ask the price, the counselor will help by saying, "You know, the cost is $250.00. Do you have $250.00?" Horrified, the woman will reply, "No." The counselor will then have to calm her down and walk her through the steps to gather the money. The woman will be told, "Go to all your friends. Ask to borrow $5.00, $10.00, or $25.00. Get a part-time job. Pay them back in a year."

The last step in the process is getting the woman in the clinic, preferably for an appointment, but at the very least for a "free pregnancy test so she will know for sure." The counselor checks her appointment book and gives the woman a choice of two times for the test. (The counselor must keep an appointment book to keep the patients separated. There is nothing worse than two women arriving at the same time who have just found themselves to be pregnant, who are both upset, and who can only be seen by the counselor one at a time.) When the woman walks in the front door, the counselor knows who she is and greets her by name. "Hello, Linda, I'm Carol. I am so glad you are here." The woman thinks, "Am I the only one she is working with?" After all, this counselor is trained to be a friend. Hopefully, she is the only one discussing the abortion with the distressed woman.

Together, they go to the lab. The counselor mixes the urine and the chemicals, pointing to a chart on the wall which shows the results of both a positive and a negative test. The woman watches the test, and if it is positive, the counselor sympathizes with her. Then the counselor asks, "Do you have your money? Why don't you do it right now so you will not have to think about it anymore? After all, the sooner the better." If the woman leaves the clinic, someone might actually counsel her that abortion is not the answer! If the woman has her money, they go to the front desk to pay.

If you read many pregnancy tests, you can tell at about a minute into the test if it is going to be positive or negative. If the test looks questionable, the counselor will start selling another step. "This test is not sensitive enough to pick up a very early pregnancy, but we have another test we can do that will tell you positively today. I know you don't want to be concerned with this any longer than you must." The woman will be put in the "proves she is pregnant" line, which usually will include a sonogram.

A sonogram shows everything in a woman's abdomen, and a uterus will show up, pregnant or not. The doctor or technician will find a good view of the uterus, lock the screen in place, turn it around to show it to Linda, and say, "See, there it is, you are pregnant." Linda does not routinely read sonograms, so she will take the expert's opinion. The next question will be, "Do you have your money? Don't you want to just do it right now so you don't have to think about it any more?"

What happens when an abortion is performed on a non-pregnant woman?

When a woman is pregnant, her cervix (the mouth of the uterus) softens, which makes it easier to dilate. A non-pregnant uterus is hard, and the cervix is difficult to dilate, so the risk of injury is greater. Perhaps the cervix will never clamp down normally on a pregnancy again. Once the cervix is dilated, the doctor has to prove at least to the nurse that he performed an abortion, and he must remove something, so he scrapes out more of the lining of the uterus than normal. The chances of sterility resulting are far greater in a non-pregnant woman. Might this fit into the new higher rate of infertility our country is experiencing?

At the front desk, the woman pays. The preferred method is cash, but many abortion clinics accept credit cards.

Then the woman moves to the counseling area. She is given a consent form written by a National Abortion Federation attorney that so confuses the poor woman that she does not ask questions. The form has every possible complication, from nothing to death, and for the most part, it accomplishes its purpose.

However, every woman has these same two questions: First, "Is it a baby?" "No," the counselor assures the woman. "It is a product of conception (or blood clot, or piece of tissue)." Even though these counselors see 6-week babies daily, less than an inch long, with arms, legs, and eyes that are closed like newborn puppies, they lie to the woman. How many women would actually have an abortion if they told them the truth? The second question is, "Does it hurt?" Again, a lie: "No, your uterus is a muscle. It is a cramp when it opens and a cramp when it closes, so you will experience a slight cramping sensation." Most women have had cramps and lived, so the woman thinks it must not be too painful. However, an abortion can be excruciatingly painful!

Now, the woman moves into the abortion procedure area. She has signed her consent form and paid her money; she is now a different commodity!

The operating area is cool, to keep the doctor happy. There seems to be confusion here, as each team of nurses rushes around trying to keep women ready for the doctor. Each operating room has a radio, each on a different station, so there is little cross-communication between rooms. Every effort is made to keep women from hearing other women scream during the abortion procedure. The woman's counselor, usually the one who booked her on the telephone, joins her in the room to continue the "friendship"; however, the real reason is to keep her quiet!

The abortionist stops at the door of the room, picks up the chart, removes a receipt, and adds it to his stack. At the end of the day, each doctor turns in his receipts and is paid in cash. Using this method, the abortion clinics do not show the doctors to be employees; therefore, the clinic is not responsible for the doctor's malpractice insurance, and no records are kept for the Internal Revenue Service. The doctors prefer this method because they have no overhead. They receive cash at the end of each day without waiting for insurance to pay. Again, how much of this money is actually reported as income?

The abortionist enters the room, asking a question like, "Where does your mother think you are today?"-something to reinforce the fear, rather than, "Are you sure this is what you want to do? Have you considered your other alternatives?" If the doctor misses the fear, the counselor helps him out.

The woman is scared. Her legs are strapped to the table. Many times, as the abortionist starts numbing her cervix, she will say, "Stop. I don't want to do this. I've changed my mind." The abortionist will reply, "It's too late. I have already started the procedure." Another lie, but if he stops now, he doesn't get paid! Many times, other nurses will have to be called in to hold the woman on the table while the doctor completes the abortion. The sounds of the suction machine, as the blood and small parts of the baby pop through the tube, are permanently imbedded in the woman's memory. Finally, the procedure is over, and she is moved to the recovery room.

Aborted women have two reactions in the recovery room. The first is, "I have killed my baby!" As bad as this sounds, this woman has had an opportunity to deal with the death of her child, grieve, and go on with her life. In anger, the second reaction is, "You promised me I would only be here two hours. It has been four. Let me go!"

But she can't leave yet. She has to go through the re-sale process!

"Take these birth control pills."

The woman replies, "I will never have sex again."

The recovery room nurse coolly says, "You came in once, and if you don't take these, you will be here again." With inadequate information, the woman is given the pill, and statistics show that when contraceptives are dispensed in this environment, pregnancy rates go up. Statistics also show that nearly one-third of all abortion clinic clients are repeat customers.

Life inside the abortion clinic is chaotic. I worked seven days a week doing abortions, even on Sunday. My compensation was $25.00 per abortion and one-third interest in the clinics. In 1983, with two clinics open, I was well on the way to $250,000, with plans to open three more clinics. With five clinics open (the McDonald's of the abortion industry), my income would have been $1,000,000 annually! With this goal in mind, I called in a business counselor to handle the problems between the partners. We agreed to meet for an hour weekly for four weeks.

During my second meeting, I realized this man was surrounded with a peace I didn't see in my world, and I started questioning him! For some reason, I asked if he was a minister. His reply was, "Yes."

Incredulously, I asked, "What are you doing in this situation?"

"God sent me."

I had my answer; he was crazy! After all, I was a Christian. I had a Bible in my desk drawer. I tithed on all my abortion income, and I prayed daily about the abortions!

As the minister shared the Gospel and we prayed a prayer of salvation, I didn't think anything in my life would change. To my surprise, as I returned to the abortion clinic, I saw that women were not happily rushing in to have a long-awaited abortion. Each woman really wanted someone to tell her there was another way. Abortion was not the answer! Even though each woman actually cost me $25.00, I started counseling women not to have abortions!

In confusion, I returned to the minister for my next counseling session. My words were, "You will not believe what has started happening this week! All these women don't want abortions!"

The minister replied, "It hasn't just started happening. Your eyes have been opened, and you have just started to see it."

I knew he was right. In a state of confusion, I fell to my knees inside that abortion clinic and prayed, "Lord-if there is a Lord-if this is not where you want me, hit me over the head with a two-by-four."

My prayer was answered within a few days. A television station in our area did an expose on abortion clinics doing abortions on women who were not pregnant. Six women came in, dressed in blue jeans, wired for sound. We worked so hard on one woman that she had to change her tape! She was so convinced she was pregnant that she rushed to her own doctor, who ran another test to confirm that she was not pregnant. As this flashed across the television screen for five days, I experienced an incredible peace that surpassed all understanding.

My prayer was answered. I was not supposed to be in the abortion business!

I know first-hand, from having my own abortion in 1973 and having operated several clinics, that taking the life of an unborn child is not the answer to an unwanted pregnancy. Abortion not only kills a real human baby, it devastates the women, who are exploited by greedy abortionists.

Abortion will not be stopped until people are brought face to face with the horrors of this holocaust. My prayer is that this walk through an abortion clinic will cause you to re-double your efforts to stop this terrible plague that is ravaging the women of this country and destroying our future generations.

Carol Everett is available to share her testimony at rallies, conventions, workshops, church meetings, colleges, high schools, banquets, fund raisers for pro-life causes, and before various organizations to do media interviews. If you are interested in scheduling Carol Everett for a speaking engagement, you may contact her at LIFE NETWORK, 17430 Campbell Road, Suite 206, Dallas, TX 75252, phone (214) 733-0338.

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