Abortion, legal but not safe!
This video is a composite of emergency 911 calls to Aware Woman abortion clinic in Melbourne, Florida. The video is overlaid with audio from the actual 911 calls and one message left on our answering machine by one young woman whose abortion at Aware Woman went terribly wrong. A transcript of the audio is included below.
Transcript of December 12, 1997 (911 call)
Dispatcher: Fire/rescue.
Aware Woman: Hi, we need an ambulance up at Aware Woman, it’s 1564 Dixie Way.
Dispatcher: Okay, what’s going on?
Aware Woman: We have a patient with a real low blood pressure – 54 over 30.
Dispatcher: Is she a surgery patient?
Aware Woman: Yes.
Dispatcher: Is she post-surgery today?
Aware Woman: Yes.
Dispatcher: How many hours?
Aware Woman: Let me see when she had her surgery? She had her surgery . . . she was done with surgery at 12:35 – so about 2.5 hours.
Dispatcher: But she’s responsive?
Aware Woman: She is responsive.
Dispatcher: __Okay, and your name? __
Aware Woman: My name is (blanked out).
Dispatcher: We’re on the way. If she gets worse before we get there, call right back.
Aware Woman: Okay, thank you.
Dispatcher: Unh huh, bye.
Aware Woman: Bye,bye.
(Hang up sounds)
Transcript of July 4, 1997 (911 call)
Dispatcher: Fire/Rescue.
Aware Woman: Hi, we need an ambulance at Aware Woman – we have a patient with heavy bleeding.
Dispatcher: And your number.
Aware Woman: (unintelligible) Bye Bye.
Transcript of March 29, 1997 (911 call)
Dispatcher: Fire/Rescue.
Aware Woman: We need a transport, we have a possible perforation and we’d like a transport with no lights, no sirens.
Dispatcher: Okay, ma’am, we are 911. We have to come emergency.
Aware Woman: Okay, so you have to have lights and sirens.
Dispatcher: Yes ma’am.
Aware Woman: Okay.
Dispatcher: And what’s wrong with her?
Aware Woman: A possible perforation.
Dispatcher: What’s that?
Aware Woman: Where the uterus has been perforated. She was having an abortion.
Transcript of an Aware Woman patient
This young woman is responding to one of many letters that we sent to Aware Woman patients offering help with problems after an abortion. She did not identify herself but she is obviously hurting both physically and mentally. She is still pro-choice but wants us to “tell the girls that if this is something they want to do, then don’t go there (Aware Woman)” and “They don’t know what might happen 2 or 3 days later . . . Their baby might come out like mine did — whole. It wasn’t torn, it wasn’t anything. I was 13 weeks and I held it in my hand. It fit in the palm of my hand.”
Hi, I had a procedure done there (at Aware Woman abortion clinic) in January and I just think that while you are protesting you should just maybe tell the people what happened to me. I had an abortion in January of this year and two days later . . . they didn’t give me an abortion. A baby came out in the toilet and I held it in my hand.
I tried to get counseling and things like that. You know all the therapist does is just want to dig up things that have happened in your life. She never wants to hit the issue that you want to talk about.
Well, I’m just calling . . . I mean you can tell the girls that, you know, if this is something they want to do, then don’t go there (Aware Woman).
I tried to seek legal advice and pretty much Aware Woman has covered their butt. You know they are not going to let anything happen to them.
So, my intentions are only just to tell these girls that they might go in and pay $480.00 and their termination might be what happens. They don’t know what might happen 2 or 3 days later. Maybe they may have a chance that nothing would happen to them. Their baby might come out like mine did — whole. It wasn’t torn, it wasn’t anything. I was 13 weeks and I held it in my hand. It fit in the palm of my hand.
I have terrible, terrible problems. I bleed every day. I don’t know if I will ever have children again. I am 22 years old.
Maybe I should have listened to the lady who was trying to talk to me when I went inside. I haven’t talked to anyone else about this so it felt good just to have someone listen and not say anything.
