The Whole Woman’s Health abortion facility chain commits abortions up to 24 weeks. These late-term abortions are done by D&E. On its website, Whole Woman’s Health describes a D&E to abortion-seeking women by saying, “Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) is another kind of in-clinic abortion procedure. It uses suction and medical tools to empty your uterus.”
After explaining how the abortionist dilates the woman’s cervix with sticks called laminaria, the website says that during a D&E, the abortionist will “insert a thin tube through your cervix into your uterus” and then “use a combination of medical tools and a suction device to gently take the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus.” (emphasis added)
The website then says:
Once your abortion is over, you’ll rest in a recovery area with our medical staff until you feel better and are ready to leave. We offer special tea, snacks and opportunities for support.
A D&E procedure usually takes between 10 and 20 minutes.
A 10 to 20-minute procedure where a woman’s uterus is “gently” emptied of “pregnancy tissue” sounds harmless and easy. It certainly doesn’t sound violent or destructive. But the reality of a D&E is much different.
24 weeks. This what Whole Women’s Health abortion facilities call “pregnancy tissue”
In the video below, former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino describes a D&E abortion at 20 weeks:
Dr. Levatino also explained a D&E elsewhere, saying:
[L]ook for your Sopher clamp. This instrument is about thirteen inches long and made of stainless steel. At one end are located jaws about 2 inches long and about an an inch wide with rows of sharp ridges or teeth. This instrument is for grasping and crushing tissue. When it gets hold of something, it does not let go…
Picture yourself reaching in [to the woman’s uterus] with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can. At 20 weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about 4 to 5 inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.
The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. If you have a really bad day like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you….
Obviously, the “facts” about a D&E on the facility’s website are deeply misleading. It certainly isn’t “gentle” to the baby.
READ: Abortionists describe impact of learning D&E abortions
During testimony in New York in 2004, abortionist Carolyn Westoff was asked what she told her abortion patients about D&Es, and she made it clear that she hides the truth from women obtaining abortions:
Westoff: In all of our D&Es the head is collapsed or crushed, and the brains are definitely out of the skull but those are —
Q: Do you tell them that?
Westoff: Those are details that would be distressing to my patients and would not — information about that is not directly relevant to their safety.
Q: Don’t — whether it’s relative to their safety or not don’t you think it’s since they’re giving authorization to you to do this act that they should know precisely what you’re going to do?
Westoff: That’s actually not the practice I have of discussing surgical cases with patients.
Q: I didn’t ask you that. I said don’t you think they ought to know?
Westoff: No, sir, I don’t.
Later, Westoff was asked:
Q: Do you tell a woman who is considering a D&E that the fetal arms, legs, extremities may be dismembered in the course of a dismemberment variation D&E, Dr. Westhoff?
Westhoff: I tell patients that we will remove all of the fetus in the uterus and membrane, the placenta and membranes from the uterus as safely as possible and that that proceeds somewhat differently for all patients…
Westoff: For the vast majority of D&Es [it will] be necessary it either crush or collapse the fetal skull.
Q: Do you tell the woman that? Do you use the word crush?
Westhoff: Your Honor, I do not.
The abortion industry hides the truth about abortion from women.
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