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Truth
is powerful and inbodies those who seek it with an open mind. |
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EX-ABORTIONIST
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Prochoice
NO MORE: Joan Appleton was a feminist. She was active
in the National Organization for Women. She wanted
to provide a service to women so she took a job at
the Commonwealth Women’s Clinic in Fall’s
Church, Virginia.
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did I get started in the abortion business? I was very
active in NOW (National Organization for Women). As
a registered nurse, I thought what a wonderful opportunity
I had as a nurse and as a firm believer in choice to
be able to actually practice my political beliefs. I
looked at it as a gift, so I went about working hard
at the clinic for four years and remained active within
the National Organization for Women. One of the things
that bothered me even during the time that I was head
nurse at the clinic is that it [abortion] was such an
emotional trauma for a woman and such a difficult decision
for a woman to make. If it was right, why was it so
difficult? I had to ask myself that all the time. I
counseled these women so well, they were so sure of
their decision, so why were they coming back months
and years later, psychological wrecks? We in the pro-choice
movement and in the abortion industry deny that there
is anything like post-abortion syndrome. Yet, it is
real and they do come back. I couldn’t deny their
presence. Another thing that bothered me as I went about
my work at the clinic was the fact that I had seen an
ultrasound abortion. We did first trimester abortions.
This was a late first trimester, probably second trimester.
I handled the ultrasound while the doctor performed
the procedure and I directed him while I was watching
the screen. I was the baby pull away. I saw the baby
open his mouth. I had seen Silent Scream a number of
times, but it didn’t effect me. To me it was just
more pro-life propaganda. But I couldn’t deny what
I saw on the screen. After that procedure I was shaking,
literally, but managed to pull it together and continue
on with the day. The doctors that we used were primarily
physicians who were starting out in practice and would
do abortion until they had enough money to open their
own private practice. Or they were physicians who didn’t
have such a hot practice did abortions to pay for their
medical malpractice insurance. I never, ever had a doctor
in the five years I was there who did abortions because
he believed it was the right of the woman. It was not
what was foremost in his mind. I’m not saying that
they don’t exist, but you certainly can’t
prove it by me or by my clinic. I became more and more
involved politically. We were a full-service clinic.
We dealt with all types of sexually transmitted diseases,
birth control, condoms, everything. I began to work
more with organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL
and NAF on certain projects. I was issuing birth control
pills after an abortion, and this is where I learned
the real business and the real work of the abortion
industry. I would be able to counsel a woman and say,
"Alright, we don’t want you to have to go
through this procedure again. We want to get you started
on birth control pills. We’ll give you your first
packet free." We could do this because the pharmaceutical
companies gave it to us free. It’s good marketing.
So we could distribute one pack free and write a prescription
for five months worth. Everybody makes out. If the birth
control pill doesn’t work for you this time, it
may be that it’s a little too strong. But don’t
worry, come on back because there’s one that’s
a little lower dose. Now the pharmaceutical companies
and Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry were
not stupid. They knew that the less dose of estrogen
in those pills, the more likely it was they were going
to fail. But you don’t have to worry. We can bring
you right back here for another abortion. They even
used percentages, by the way. Thirty percent failure
rate, because were going to use the real low estrogen
pill. So that means thirty percent will come back. And
if we forget to tell you, by the way, that if you get
the flu and have to be put on antibiotics, the chemical
reaction between the birth control pill and the antibiotic
renders the birth control pill worthless – and
totally ineffective so we have another twenty percent.
Thank you , come back around. When I started counseling
women there were seven forms of sexually transmitted
diseases. There are now twenty. But don’t worry,
you can come back to us for that. Of course we will
get you on some medication for that, and we know what
the antibiotics do to the pill. Bingo! We have another
ten, fifteen percent coming back around. Thank you.
Now we’re going into the schools and teaching "safe
sex" because we care about women. We tell them
to use condoms. You must use condoms with a jell or
foam, never alone. We all know you are going to have
sex anyway, so you might as well protect yourself. Then
AIDS came out and we still say, and Planned Parenthood
is still saying, use the condom. What they are really
saying is: It’s going to fail and we will still
have a certain percentage of you come back anyway. Since
the AIDS virus is 100 times smaller than sperm, we’re
going to have a real good failure rate with the condom.
So basically what they’re doing today is going
into the schools and saying, "Kids, we know you’re
going to have sex and that’s O.K. If you use our
condoms and our birth control methods and if you practice
safer sex, only three or four of you will die. The rest
of you will live." It’s the same thing as
saying to a group of high school kids, "You’ve
all got guns. We all know you are going to use them
anyway, so I have this great bullet proof vest that
will work for you. It won’t stop all the bullets
all the time, so three or four of you will get killed
anyway." That is what made me angry. I started
out in the pro-choice movement believing that I was
helping women, believing that women had a right to choose.
They had a right to life. They had a right to go on.
I thought when I was counseling women, I was helping
them through a difficult situation so they could go
on with their lives. I told them that they were the
most important person on this earth, and that once this
was over they could go on with their lives. But I had
to stop and say, "What’s going on? Why isn’t
this happening? Instead you’re going out and getting
pregnant again. You’re getting diseases. How am
I helping you?" Those are the questions that kept
on gnawing at me. I finally decided that my questions
were too strong. I didn’t like what was going on.
I didn’t like what "Our Bodies, Ourselves"
had turned into. I didn’t like what we were doing
for women. If it was right, why were they suffering?
What had we done? We created a monster and didn’t
know what to do with it. I went to Debra [a sidewalk
counselor] and began to ask questions. We talked and
talked. My way of getting our of NOW was that I a guest
speaker at a Virginia NOW dinner. I got up to the podium
and I said, "Folks, I can’t do this anymore.
There is something wrong here and I can no longer be
a part of the abortion industry or a part of the pro-choice
movement and so I can no longer be a part of NOW."
I was asked to leave immediately. For a while there
was a stir. These were people I had worked very hard
with in the organization, people who I had trained to
be escorts at the clinic. My last official job at Commonwealth
Women’s Clinic happened to occur on the same day
that a group of pro-lifers were having some rescues
in the Washington D.C. area. Debra and I had become
very close friends and she stayed with me when she came
into town for these rescues. I dropped Debra off downtown
early in the morning - it was in November- and there
were thousands of pro-lifers everywhere. I dropped Debra
off and went to back to my clinic to set up the defense
against the pro-lifers. That day there was a group of
men and women from the pro-choice community in France
in town for Senate hearings on RU486. This was in 1989.
These people from France wanted a clinic demonstration
so they chose my clinic. I was asked to give them a
tour and explain the procedures to them. That was my
last official job. I took the French contingency through
my abortion clinic, explained it in detail and that
was it. It was all done. I left. |
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