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The Delusional World of Late-Term Abortionists

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Theresa Bonopartis - published on 09/04/14
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You have to lie to yourself and everyone else to be able to abort viable babies for a living.

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I did not watch the PBS documentary “After Tiller” celebrating the late-term abortionist George Tiller that aired on September 1st. In my work with couples who aborted late-term pregnancies due to an adverse diagnosis, some of whom went to Tiller’s clinic, I’ve had a front row seat to the “After” of those who went to Tiller.

I will never forget the first time I saw one of the pictures he took of a baby he had just killed, all dressed up and placed in her mother’s arms so that pictures could be taken with her parents, mimicking the normalcy of post-birth family photos. He was also known to “baptize” these deceased children. It struck me as surreal that anyone could legally kill viable children (and some nearly full-term) for a living. Perhaps he really believed that he was doing good, but what a travesty it is to pretend that acts of barbarism, beyond the bounds of even permissive moral norms, is somehow “normal.”  

One of Tiller’s patients with whom I worked shared this observation with me:
 

”One of the things that needed to be addressed once we returned home was the burial of our daughter. Our baby was cremated and her ashes given to us. Imagine, we saw and held our daughter whom we aborted, and then were given her ashes! In retrospect, I see how the clinic spent so much effort in making what happened appear normal, but as time goes by we saw more and more how it is anything but normal. The clinic accomplishes this, in part, by taking pictures of the babies and making arrangements for burial. It is as if these deaths were a natural occurrence and the parents need to grieve and we had no part in the death.”

Say what you want, George Tiller was no hero.

It is plain to see that late-term abortionist Dr. Susan Robinson thinks of herself as a hero as well. Speaking of her participation in the documentary she says:
 

"Every woman is the world’s expert on her own life—and what is right for her—and you can’t make ethical judgments for other people. I love this film because people walk out saying: ‘I always thought late-abortion was a terrible thing, but wow, it’s a lot more complicated than I thought.’”

If anyone gets that impression after seeing the film, it can only be because it is filled with lies.

Most couples given adverse diagnoses are never offered alternatives to abortion and report that they felt pressured into the decision by their OB or genetic specialist. In the traumatic situation of learning that their unborn child—whom they expected to be healthy and “perfect” in every way—parents are given little time to recover from the shock and explore other options.

They are never told of the resources that are available to them to help them deliver their children and love them as long as they live. Over 200 perinatal hospices have been established in hospitals, hospices and clinics, in over 40 states in the United States, to offer palliative care to babies who are not likely to survive long after birth and offer support to their families. 

When parents believe that their circumstances would prevent their being able to care for a child with nonfatal health problems, there are any number of adoption agencies specializing in the adoption of babies and children with special needs. Here are just few of them: Special Needs Adoption: Rainbow Kids, Reece’s Rainbow, National Down Syndrome Adoption Network and Hopscotch Adoptions.

More than once, couples have told me about the “guilt trips” the medical community and even family members tried to lay on them. They were told that they were selfish for even considering bringing their child to term, with comments like these: “If something happens to you ‘it’ will be put in a home and abused.” Or, “You do not want your child to suffer, do you?” The irony of course is that killing these unborn babies
in utero absolutely causes them to suffer. Or this, “What about your other children? It is selfish to think of having this baby.”

We are made to believe that late-term abortions are needed because of concerns over the mother’s health. What most people don’t realize is that “mental health,” and not any physical reason, is nearly always given to justify the abortion.

What also perplexes me is that, although Susan Robinson surely uses mental health as a reason to abort, she emphatically denies the impact of the abortion itself on the mental health of women. She has said:
 

”The link between abortion and mental illness is non-existent—it’s all based on junk science. These are the same people who believe the earth is flat."

Really? Where is her compassion for the countless couples who are suffering because of a late-term abortion? How is it that she thinks “mental anguish” justifies having a baby aborted, but that suffering because you participated in the death of your own child is “junk science”?

The mother of an unborn child whom Dr. Tiller killed in the last trimester confirmed the error of this thinking:
 

”The catch phrase for an abortion this late in pregnancy is ‘health of the mother.’ What most people do not realize is that this includes mental health, so if a mom says she is depressed or stressed, she is free to abort. Thinking back, I never felt my health, mental or physical, was in jeopardy. Moreover, I would venture to say that my mental health was essentially threatened after the abortion. Talk about irony!”

 
Sadly, Susan Robinson does not care about the experiences of this woman or others who discovered only after a late-term abortion, that they had been manipulated and lied to by the industry.

 
“Burying my daughter was a shameful experience. It is so hard to grieve for your child when you consciously chose to end her life. I felt dishonest. I perceived myself as a phony, a fake. There was a tape playing in my head that kept reminding me that I didn’t deserve the sympathy I was getting. So many family members and friends sent us flowers and mass cards. While I appreciated each and every kind gesture, I felt unworthy of such sentiments. I kept thinking, ‘Are these people crazy, I killed my baby!’ When I wasn’t chastising myself, I would try to allow all the good wishes and sentiments of others legitimize what I had done. I could fool myself for a while, but not forever. I lived with that guilt and shame for a long time.”


Normalizing the abnormal works only for a while. Late-term abortion providers like Susan Robinson may convince themselves and others to stay in denial about their experience, but sooner or later the stark truth of what they have done surfaces, and all the documentaries in the world cannot change that.

The good news is there is healing, and while these couples will always grieve the loss of their child, they can also come to a place of peace once they understand the dynamics of what happened and place themselves in the presence of our merciful God.

Tiller and Robinson heroes? I think not. Late-term abortionists are just delusional people who convinced themselves that killing viable children is a worthy way to make a living. May they face the truth of what they’re doing and seek the Lord’s mercy.


Theresa Bonopartis
is the director of the post-abortion  healing program Lumina and co-developer of the “Entering Canaan” post abortion ministry model.

For more information about healing after abortion, visit 
Lumina and 
Hope After Abortion.

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