Euphemisms about abortion as a “woman’s right” and “essential healthcare” are constantly circulated, even by the likes of Melania Trump. But while the former First Lady said abortion has to do with a woman’s “power to determine what she does with her own body,” and that “a woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” rarely does a woman’s abortion experience look like a powerful exercise of authority over her own body.
Live Action News reviewed and collected Google Reviews of abortion facilities in the U.S. between August and October of 2024, ostensibly written by women who have experienced abortion first hand. These stories of abortion experiences are graphic, a far cry from the euphemistic descriptions of abortion as a positive right, and they describe abortion as brutal rather than liberating.
“I heard screams… Once I got back for my procedure I immediately understood.”
This review of All Women’s Health Center, Inc, in St. Petersburg, Florida, alleges that women scream and cry during abortions because of intense pain, while medical staff focus on completing the abortions.
“… the medicine doesn’t put you to sleep[;] it puts you in a state to where you can’t move but you can feel literally everything! The pain was not worth it.” The client recommended a different abortion facility instead.
“Doctor… cursed at me… because I said I was hurting.”
According to a review of A Woman’s Center of Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida, a doctor yelled and cursed at a patient during her abortion when she mentioned her pain. “I hated my whole experience with him… he is very mean,” the woman wrote. Is this what empowerment during abortion looks and feels like?
“This was excruciating. Unimaginable pain.”
A review of North Florida Women’s Services, in Tallahassee, Florida, claims that the doctor of the facility was extremely rude and rough while he was performing the abortion. How did abortion protect this woman’s bodily autonomy?
“The doctor is very rough. I screamed and cried,” K. Pearson wrote. “They give minimum gas. I felt mistreated. I’ve had a surgical procedure before and only felt pressure. This was excruciating. Unimaginable pain. He scraped and d[u]g like nobody’s business. I ask[ed] him to stop. It was that painful. He showed no compassion. Didn’t talk much or offered comforting words. It’s almost like he gets pleasure out of your pain.”
“It was so painful it felt like I was being punished…”
A woman describes how she felt like the doctor was “punishing” her while committing her abortion at North Florida Women’s Services, in Tallahassee, Florida. Her review doesn’t show abortion as empowering at all; in fact, she stated that she “had to resort to abortion for the third time in my life regrettably” (emphasis added).
“It was so painful it felt like I was being punished as if the dr had some type of aggression towards me,” she wrote, adding that she “also heard at least two other patients screaming and crying….” She concluded, “Something doesn’t sit right with me about this dr or what happened today.”
“I laid on the table while 4 nurses held me down… as I screamed and squirmed”
The following review of Planned Parenthood West Hartford Center in West Hartford, Connecticut, alleged a nightmarish scene in which a teen describes her abortion as a traumatic violation of her person; it doesn’t sound at all like exercising her ‘bodily autonomy’.
“Instead of stopping to check on me, they held me down and held my legs open,” she wrote. “I’m 21 now and luckily for them, the statutes of limitations for a lawsuit has passed so I unfortunately can’t really sue, otherwise I’d absolutely sue the life out of them and own this clinic. I still suffer from PTSD to this day and I’m in therapy for it.”
“The most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced in my life”
The woman who posted this review of Lakeland Woman’s Health Center, Inc, in Lakeland, Florida, just five months ago, learned that Big Abortion doesn’t work for women’s best interests, despite what the media claims.
“I was told i’d only feel a little bit of pain and wouldn’t remember most of the procedure. I remember every second of it and had the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. I screamed in pain and they told me I couldn’t scream in there. Like what?? The next day I woke up with blood everywhere and had to be rushed to the emergency room. They then had to do a D and C procedure to get what this clinic missed. If I were you I would go somewhere else. This place is absolutely horrible.”
“It feels like a slow excruciating death to your body…”
The following review of Lakeland Woman’s Health Center, Inc, in Lakeland, Florida, talks about how abortion inflicts excruciating pain on a woman’s body and leaves permanent trauma. From the description, it appears that the woman took the abortion pill.
“It feels like a slow excruciating death to your body. The pain literally takes over until you are flailing in the bed or tub floor begging someone, something or anything to make it stop,” she wrote. “I remember thinking… this will kill me, I will die from this. I remember pleading with god for 8 hours straight to let me out of this living hell.”
Her description may also indicate that she experienced PTSD-like symptoms as a result of her abortion: “Nobody told me when you do this at home, you are creating a trauma site forever… nobody told me this isn’t something you do alone. Nobody told me what to do when you see it, or the smell it would create that stains your brain forever… Nobody told me about the numb, depressed feeling that comes immediately after it’s over, and how that pain still lingers.”
“IT WILL TRAUMATIZE YOU!!”
Abortion is traumatic, according to this review of A Woman’s Center of Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida, which describes the shocking lack of care that many women have experienced at abortion facilities: “The doctor is HORRIBLE!!! He will not give you eye contact, introduce himself, say his name nor even acknowledge you… you will SEE and FEEL everything they are doing… I was in severe pain feeling every instrument inside of me.” She later added, “PLEASE DO NOT GO HERE… IT WILL TRAUMATIZE YOU!!”
These Google Reviews paint a very different picture of abortion than the one portrayed by the deceptive euphemisms women are fed about abortion as a positive and empowering experience, and as “basic health care.” It’s time for society to make true progress towards safeguarding women’s rights by protecting them — and their children — from abortion.
