By Sarah Terzo
Abortion becomes very real when it is seen instead of viewed as an abstract moral and political debate.
Some time ago, I was sent this testimony from a medical student who
preferred not to leave a name. He had just witnessed an abortion as part
of his training. Deeply troubled, he wanted to tell someone. He was
haunted by what he had seen.
The student starts out by saying that he was firmly in the pro-choice camp before witnessing the abortion:
“To begin, I must say that until
yesterday, Friday, July 2, 2004, I was strongly pro-choice. I am a
pre-medical student, and being very scientific, I understood that the
mass of cells that forms the fetal body is not often capable of survival
before 24 weeks in the womb. I am also somewhat liberal, and I believed
that every woman should have the right to choose what she did with her
body and one that could potentially be growing inside of her.”
The student had heard the pro-choice movement’s slogans. He took them
at face value, believing that the unborn baby was “a mass of cells” and
not an individual human being. He felt that a woman “had the right to
control her body” and did not sympathize with the tiny baby inside her.
He did not believe in the child’s humanity or right to life.
Then he took the opportunity to see an abortion performed. Because of
his pro-choice beliefs, he did not expect to be disturbed by anything
he would see:
“This summer, I was accepted into a
pre-medical program in NYC in which we are allowed to shadow doctors and
see all sorts of medical procedures. When given the opportunity to see
an abortion, I did not hesitate to accept the offer. It was something
new, edgy, and exciting that I had never seen.”
He then describes exactly what he witnessed in the operating room:
“When I entered the operating room,
it felt like any other I had ever been in. On the table in front of me, I
saw a woman, legs up as if delivering a child although she was asleep.
Next to her was a tray of instruments for the abortion and a vacuum
machine for suctioning the fetal tissues from the uterus. The doctors
put on their gowns and masks and the procedure began. The cervix was
held open with a crude metal instrument and a large transparent tube was
stuck inside of the woman. Within a matter of seconds, the machine’s
motor was engaged and blood, tissue, and tiny organs were pulled out of
their environment into a filter. A minute later, the vacuum choked to a
halt. The tube was removed, and stuck to the end was a small body and a
head attached haphazardly to it, what was formed of the neck snapped.
The ribs had formed with a thin skin covering them, the eyes had formed,
and the inner organs had begun to function. The tiny heart of the
fetus, obviously a little boy, had just stopped — forever. The vacuum
filter was opened, and the tiny arms and legs that had been torn off of
the fetus were accounted for. The fingers and toes had the beginnings of
their nails on them. The doctors, proud of their work, reassembled the
body to show me. Tears welled up in my eyes as they removed the baby boy
from the table and shoved his body into a container for disposal.”
Editor’s note. Sarah Terzo is a pro-life author and creator of the
clinicquotes.com website. She is a member of Secular Pro-Life and
PLAGAL. This appeared at liveactionnews.org.
