Pro-life activist Patricia Sandoval once worked at Planned Parenthood. Sandoval’s facility offered prenatal care as well as abortion. In the past, prenatal care was available at more Planned Parenthood locations, but in the past 20 years Planned Parenthood has almost completely stopped offering it. In a Live Action investigation, volunteers called Planned Parenthood facilities posing as pregnant women who wanted prenatal care. 92 out of 97 facilities turned them away. The video below shows some revealing responses from Planned Parenthood:
Sandoval say the workers at her facility spoke of the wanted babies on prenatal care days in warm terms but dehumanized the babies of those who were seeking abortions. They had instructed Sandoval never to use the term “baby” with women coming in on abortion days, but to refer to the pregnancy as a “sac”:
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the women who wanted to keep their babies were seen in the clinic. They were filled with the hope of giving birth, and the staff would joyfully call the “sac” a baby. The mothers-to-be were allowed to see the ultrasound screen and talk about the baby’s heartbeat, his five little toes, her developing organs. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the staff spoke passionately to these women about their pregnancies: “Look at your growing belly!”… “Your baby is so beautiful!”… “Here, look at the screen!”… “You can see her heart beating. She is so alive and precious!”…
On Mondays, the staff would perform ultrasounds on the women planning to abort, but not let them see the screen. Employees would call the babies “blobs,” “cells,” “clusters,” “tissues,” “sacs” and “it’s,” but never “babies” or “children.” Abortions were encouraged but alternatives were never explained or offered. Wednesdays and Fridays were abortion days for the clinic – totaling 45 to 50 abortions each week. The women were moved quickly into surgery, with any emotional, psychological or spiritual risks denied or left unmentioned. The staff would push aside the “obstacles” of the women’s doubts and trepidation and assure the conflicted that everything would be just fine.1
READ: Former abortion worker: We needed women to have abortions ‘to feel better about our own’
It takes major cognitive dissonance to acknowledge the humanity of some babies while killing others.
It is not unusual for an abortion worker to have this kind of inconsistent thinking. One abortion worker wrote the following on the blog “The Abortioneers”:
I work at an abortion clinic and I have a pregnant friend and a pregnant acquaintance. For what it’s worth, one pregnancy was planned, one wasn’t, and both are welcome. I can’t wait to meet their babies, and I tell them that. I even call a 9-week fetus a baby in the case of the shopkeeper I chat with. It’s all about the intention, and even though I can completely visualize what her 9-weeker looks like thanks to my pathology experience, and it sure doesn’t look like a baby, I respect that her outcome will be, barring any complications (knock on wood), a full-term baby.
Contrary to this worker’s claim, at nine weeks, a developing child does look quite a lot like a baby, as you can see in this video from the Endowment for Human Development:
Of course, it’s not surprising that an abortion worker might lie about fetal development. The worker goes on to say:
Several co-workers of mine have been pregnant and bring their kids to work to see all of their aunties. I once told a toddler, “I remember seeing you on your mama’s ultrasound around 19 weeks!” … Abortion and pregnancy and life and me, and they’re all beautiful.
It is a twisted view to see abortion, which violently kills a baby, as “beautiful” just like birth.
READ: Abortion is not health care: Former abortion workers speak out
A different abortion worker wrote about what happened when a co-worker brought in her new baby (this worker had helped do abortions while in her third trimester):
Everyone stopped working for a bit to swoon over this precious little bundle. It was a cacophony of estrogen swirling around, making music out of all our “ooohs” and all of our “ahhhhs.” Thing is, Veronica chose to continue her pregnancy, so we sang with delight. When a woman chooses to abort, we hum. We hold her hand while she may moan, and we hum with warmth, compassion, and love. I think it’s beautiful to see a pregnant woman working at the clinic.
In reality, of course, killing a woman’s preborn child isn’t treating her or her child with love; instead, it leaves many women with a lifetime of emotional problems.
These workers see babies as valuable when they are wanted and worthless when they are not — or at least, in order to do their jobs, they have to tell themselves that. When the child is wanted, she is a precious baby. When unwanted, she is just medical waste. This is completely illogical and inconsistent, and operates as a form of denial.
- Patricia Sandoval, Christine Watkins Transfigured: Patricia Sandoval’s Escape from Drugs, Homelessness, and the Backdoors of Planned Parenthood (Sacramento, California: Queen of Peace Media, 2017) 54
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