People who are still doing abortion counseling will insist that they use non-directive techniques and have the client's best interest in mind. At a conference called "Meet the Abortion Providers," a far different picture was painted by those who had done counseling in the past.
McNair includes several quotes from former abortion workers, such as this one:
I was trained by a professional marketing director how to sell abortions over the telephone. This man came into our clinic and he took every one of our receptionists, all of the nurses, anyone that would be on the phone, and he took us through an extensive training period where we learned how to sell abortions over the telephone. So that when the girl called, we hooked the sale. So she wouldn't go down the street and get an abortion somewhere else, and so that she wouldn't adopt out her baby, or so that she wouldn't change her mind. We were doing it to get her money. It was for the money. --Nita Whitten
McNair goes on to explore the conflict between a movement that espouses "respect for women" and facilities that are contemptuous of their patients.
Luhra Tivis reports that the person in charge of the escort service organized by the local NOW at Dr. Tiller's clinic "stopped the escort service because she went with him while he did some abortions, accompanied him, and didn't like the way he treated the women. Real rough, and arrogant, and not respecting their privacy." That NOW chapter still refused to run an article against him in their local newsletter, however. There was no warning to women of what they were facing to come from them.
McNair also contrasts the idea of "service" with the business end of abortion:
Some readers will have objected to our use of the words "industry" and "business" for abortion provision, on the grounds that it's a primarily a medical service. .... A perusal of any reasonably-sized Yellow Pages would show that the term "business" is completely appropriate. The large display ads, used to get business away from competitors, make an interesting contrast with other doctors. Discount coupons are not uncommon, and toll-free 800 numbers are prevalent.
....
There are also reports of performing "terminations" on people whose urine pregnancy tests came back negative. This has been reported in many of the newspaper series on scandals. Major examples include the Miami Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, and Los Angeles Times. People who do that can't even pretend to be providing a medical service.
Finally, McNair raises the specter of racism:
Much of the advocacy for abortion is done by left-wing people who find racism appalling, and steadfastly neglect the racists that applaud the consequences of their abortion advocacy.
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Edward Allred specializes in abortion and does it in many clinics. He was featured in a 1980 newspaper article, stating: "Population control is too important to be stopped by some right-wing pro-life types. Take the new influx of Hispanic immigrants. .... I'd set up a clinic in Mexico for free if I could. . . . The Aid to Families With Dependent Children program is the worst boondoggle ever created. When a sullen black woman can decide to have a baby and get welfare and food stamps and become a burden to all of us it's time to stop. In parts of South Los Angeles having babies for welfare is the only industry the people have."
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Racist attitudes are not merely outrageous remarks. The consequences can be much more ominous. The following letter shows this: "I am the mother of Belinda A. Byrd, victim of abortionists at 426 East 99th Street in Inglewood. I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death, taken from this world on January 27,1987.... and nobody cares. I know that other young black women are now dead after abortion at that address -- Cora Mae Lewis and Yvonne Tanner. Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to white abortionists who leave young black women dead. I'm hurting real bad and want some justice for Belinda and all other women who go like sheep to slaughter."
Another interesting point to abortion-related racism: Black women comprise 12% of the population, are sold 25% of abortions, and account for 50% of known abortion deaths.
We found abundant examples of the kinds of abuses McNair describes when researching Lime 5. See examples such as Competing for the Abortion Dollar, "Act Now!", The Voodoo Abortionists
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