By Sarah Terzo
I have written at length about how the ‘counseling’ in abortion facilities is often coercive, misleading and outright dishonest. In Cynthia Gorney’s massive book about abortion, Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars, an abortion center counselor describes a typical counseling session she has with partners of women who come in for abortions.
Abortion center worker Sylvia Hampton says:
Sometimes, [the partners of those having abortions] would say ‘Have you ever seen the abortion afterward?’ and I would say, ‘Yes, I have.’ Then they would say, ‘Well, what does it look like?’ And I would say, ‘Well, it depends on the stage of the pregnancy.” ”Does it have little feet and a heartbeat?’ And I would say, ‘Yes, at the early stages it does. But you have to have a magnifying glass to see it. And that’s beside the point. The point is that this is a developing embryo that is going to become a child, a teenager, an adult. Is this what this woman wants? Is this what this woman is ready for?….
I would kind of put it back on them: Yeah, it is a developing human being, but why isn’t she carrying it to term? And then they would start to talk about that.
Here we see that although Hampton is honest when she answers questions about fetal development, she actively tries to change the subject and minimize the impact the information has on the men whose babies are scheduled to die. Also, note that she does not give any information about the baby until she is directly asked and can no longer evade the question. Although her willingness to reveal the truth (albeit under direct, persistent questioning) is definitely better than clinic workers who lie outright (which is all too common) it is clear that Hampton doesn’t want the women’s partners to dwell on how developed their children are.
Hampton makes sure to impress on the men that abortion is the woman’s decision, not theirs. Perhaps Hampton’s counseling sessions serve a dual purpose – discouraging the men from interfering and keeping them out of the way while their wives or girlfriends kill their babies.
Also note that Hampton refers to the fetus as “a developing human being.” She has no illusions about what her facility does. She knows the place where she works kills human beings. She knows that she is an accomplice to murder, but keeps doing her job anyway.
Source: Cynthia Gorney,”Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars “(Simon & Shuster: New York, 1998)p. 267.
Editor’s note. This appeared at liveactionnews.org and is reprinted with permission. Sarah Terzo is a pro-life author and creator of the clinicquotes.com website. She is a member of Secular Pro-Life and PLAGAL.