Former clinic worker, abortion activist: “We created a monster”
By Sarah Terzo
Joan Appleton
Appleton was a member of the National Organization for Women, a pro-abortion feminist group, and when she took the job at the Commonwealth Abortion Clinic, she was happy to be working there. As she explained:
I thought that I had a wonderful
opportunity as a nurse and as a firm believer in choice to be able to
actually practice my political beliefs.
I looked at it as a gift, so I went about working hard at the (Abortion) Clinic for four years and remained active within NOW.
Appleton believed that abortion was good for women – that it helped
them pursue their goals and dreams and allowed them to lead fulfilling
lives. But as former abortion patients
came through the doors of the clinic with emotional problems caused by
their previous abortions, she began to realize that her lofty goal of
helping women was falling far short of reality.
I often saw women who were injured
emotionally by abortion. However, my supervisor told me, “if she’s
having a problem after her abortion, it’s because she was having a
problem before her abortion.”
She was also struck by how much trouble women had with making the decision, how much they agonized over it.
One of the things that kept bothering me even while I was head nurse in the clinic, was why it was such an emotional trauma
for a woman and such a difficult decision for a woman to make, if it
was a natural thing to do. If it was right, why was it so difficult? I
had to ask myself that all the time. I asked myself too, I counseled
these women so well, they were so sure of their decision, why are they
coming back after me now, months and years later, psychological wrecks.
Even though Appleton counseled the women very carefully, making sure they were satisfied
with their decisions before they went in for the operation, they were
expressing guilt and regret. Despite her best efforts, women were coming
back emotionally hurt. Appleton says:
I thought when I was counseling
women, I was preparing them. I was preparing them, I was helping them
through a difficult situation so they could go on with their lives. I
told them that they were the most important person on this earth, that
nothing was more important than them. And once we see you through this
difficult situation, once this is over you can go about your life, you
now have the freedom, you can go to college. Guess what folks, it didn’t
happen. And I had to stop and say, what’s going on? Why isn’t this
happening? Instead you’re going out, you’re getting pregnant
again, you’re getting diseases, how am I helping you? And those are the
questions that were gnawing, gnawing, and gnawing on me.
Discussions about the emotional harm of abortion were taboo at the clinic and at the pro-choice events Appleton went to:
We deny, we in the pro-choice movement and in the abortion industry,
deny that there is anything like postabortion syndrome, yet it is real,
and they do come back, and I couldn’t deny their presence, and the
numbers were increasing, and I kept asking, why?
Appleton also became disillusioned with the doctors who worked at the clinic:
The doctors that we used were
primarily physicians who were starting out in practice and would do
abortions until they had enough money to open their own private
practice. Or they were physicians who didn’t have such a hot practice
and did abortions to pay for their medical malpractice insurance.
I never, ever had a doctor in the
five years I was there who did abortions because he believed it was the
right of the woman. It was not what was foremost in his mind. I’m not
saying that they don’t exist, but you certainly can’t prove it by me or
by my clinic.
She came to the conclusion that the clinic was run more like a
business and less like an altruistic organization dedicated to helping
women.Then Appleton had an experience that shook her deeply – she saw an abortion performed on an ultrasound screen.
It was, we did first trimester, this
was late first trimester, probably early second trimester, really … 13.7
weeks. Give or take. I can’t remember offhand what the specific problem
was, but we wanted to do the abortion by ultrasound, to make sure that
we did indeed get the entire, all the baby. The terminology was that we
wanted to make sure we had the entire pregnancy. I handled the
ultrasound while the doctor performed the procedure, and I directed him
while I was watching the screen. I saw the baby pull away. I saw the
baby open his mouth. I had seen Silent Scream a number of times, but it
didn’t affect me – to me it was just more pro-life propaganda. But I
couldn’t deny what I saw on the screen. After that procedure, I was
shaking, literally, but managed to pull it together, and continue on
with the day.
But her days in the abortion business were numbered. She could not
block the image of that child being torn apart from her mind. She could
no longer believe the lie that the abortion industry was dedicated to
helping women, and that she was doing good in her job. She left the
abortion business behind and never looked back.Remembering her years at the clinic, Appleton would say:
What have we done? We created a monster,
and that we don’t know what to do with it. We created a monster so that
we could now be pawns to the abortion industry, those of us women who
really, really still believe in women’s rights. Those of us who still
believe in care and are pro-woman, who still believe that we are worth
something, we are intelligent, we aren’t doormats, we aren’t something
to be used, and we used ourselves. We abused ourselves. And most of us
won’t accept it, most of us can’t accept it. Most of the people, those
who work in the abortion industry, those who really care and believe,
can’t accept the bad part, can’t accept the flaws.
Appleton started out as an abortion clinic worker,
but she died a pro-life hero. She broke away from the exploitation and
cruelty of the abortion industry to become a powerful voice for women
and children.You can read more of her testimony here.
Source: NRLC News
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment