Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director
Priests for Life
What place of business in America can a woman walk into and be at the highest
risk of becoming a victim of rape?
The answer is a legal abortion clinic.
More and more stories are coming to light of various types of
mistreatment of clients in abortion clinics -- deceptive practices, manipulative
pressures, unsanitary instruments, falsifying of records, people posing as
doctors without having spent a day in medical school, injuries, and deaths. In
some cases this leads to new bills in state legislatures seeking to regulate
abortion clinics; in other cases it leads to the closing of the clinics and the
jailing of the abortionist.
Certainly one of the most troubling elements of this picture is the
prevalence of sexual assault in abortion clinics. It is not uncommon. (One of
the sources that documents this information is the book Lime 5 by Mark
Crutcher.)
Why is this happening? Several factors account for it.
First of all, when a woman is in an abortion facility, she's in a place where
she doesn't want others to know she is. Usually she has hidden the fact that she
is sexually active, now needs to hide the fact that she's pregnant, and will
later hide the fact that she had an abortion. If, therefore, she is sexually
assaulted by the abortionist, whom does she tell?
A good analogy provided by the author of Lime 5 is of a married man
going to a prostitute, and in the course of his visit a man jumps out from
hiding, beats him, and steals his wallet. Now what does he do, tell his wife
that his wallet was stolen during a visit to a prostitute?
Added to the shame of saying anything about it is the fact that the abortion
client is already naked and usually anesthetized.
Another factor contributing to the occurrence of sexual assault in abortion
clinics is the moral degeneracy of the abortionists. The documented evidence we
have from cases all over the country shows a pattern of immoral behavior
connected with the practice of abortion -- lying, theft, substance abuse,
infidelity, and violence, including sexual violence.
A government study has estimated that at least 84 percent of rapes go
unreported ("The Response to Rape: Detours on the Road to Justice," prepared by
the majority Staff of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, May 1993). If that is
the case in general, the underreporting of rape in abortion clinics is much
higher, based on the considerations outlined above. Usually those who report
these instances are non-abortion victims of the abortionist's acts.
The cases in which abortionists have been convicted of sexual assault,
furthermore, reveal that the attacks are not about power, but about
punishment. It seems as though the resentment which abortion providers feel
because they have to do something that everyone considers "dirty work" (see the
psychological studies of Dr. Philip Ney on why people become abortionists) is
taken out on the woman who seeks the abortion.
Do I hear anything from "pro-woman, pro-choice" groups in protest of this
sexual assault?
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