Out of sheer curiosity, I decided this afternoon to check out Planned Parenthood’s website for information on obtaining an abortion. I presumed going in that there was a chance the information provided publicly would be much different from what women are told once they have signed on the dotted line. However, much to my surprise, there was actually a section dedicated to providing an explanation of “What happens during an in-clinic abortion.”
The surprise quickly waned once I read the description:
- Your health care provider will examine your uterus.
- You will get medicine for pain. You may be offered sedation — a medicine that allows you to be awake but deeply relaxed.
- A speculum will be inserted into your vagina.
- Your health care provider may inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix.
- The opening of your cervix may be stretched with dilators — a series of increasingly thick rods. Or you may have absorbent dilators inserted a day or a few hours before the procedure. They will absorb fluid and get bigger. This slowly stretches open your cervix. Medication may also be used with or without the dilators to help open your cervix.
- You will be given antibiotics to prevent infection.
- A tube is inserted through the cervix into the uterus.
- Either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus.
- Sometimes, an instrument called a curette is used to remove any remaining tissue that lines the uterus. It may also be used to check that the uterus is empty. When a curette is used, people often call the abortion a D&C — dilation and curettage.
“Gently empties your uterus”? That’s it? That’s the description Planned Parenthood provides of “what happens during an in-clinic abortion?” To be clear, this explanation is provided for the section on an aspiration abortion. Yet the same description (or lack thereof) is used to describe the process for performing a D&E, or dilation and evacuation.
Am I the only one who notices something missing? And not the sort of missing where you find yourself thinking, “I wonder why they didn’t mention that,” but a glaring, head-scratching, obviously purposeful omission? Where is the discussion of the baby? Where is the explanation of “what happens” to the baby “during an in-clinic abortion”?
This sort of misdirection is exactly what Planned Parenthood relies on to keep women coming into its clinics for abortions. Imagine how the number of abortions would plummet if Planned Parenthood told women:
First, we will start by inserting a suction tube into the uterus, at which point the arms, legs, feet, hands, bones and organs, including a once-beating heart, functioning nervous system and lungs, of the fetus will be sucked into the tube and thrown away. Since the head of your child is too big to be vacuumed away, the doctor will then use tongs to crush the head of the baby so it can be removed piece by piece. Then, in order to ensure there are no bone fragments or body parts left behind, we will attempt one final vacuuming of your uterus.
Thankfully, due to advances in technology, the explosion in popularity of social media (including resources like YouTube), and a number of pro-life bills passed by legislators and signed by governors all around the United States, the truth about abortion is spreading. Planned Parenthood’s tactics are being exposed and women are waking up to reality: What Planned Parenthood is trying to convince women is just a “blob of cells” — by providing as little information about pregnancy and fetal development as possible — is much more than that. That little fetus is quickly growing, has limbs and organs, can open and close his or her eyes, sucks his or her thumb and is quite happy and comfortable in the sanctuary a woman’s body provides.
Pro-life advocates must continue the work of exposing Planned Parenthood, providing women with factual information about fetal development and especially electing pro-life leaders to office, whether at the state or federal level. The mission to stop 1.3 million abortions each year starts with us.
