Erica, a 19-year-old, went to her local Planned Parenthood clinic ... thinking she might be pregnant. The pregnancy test came out negative. But the woman at the clinic insisted that Erica was indeed pregnant. "She kept telling me, 'Yes, yes, you are definitely pregnant. If you want an abortion, you must get one now or in the next couple of weeks. " Erica recalled, "I was being a little obstinate, saying, 'Show me: How do you know I'm pregnant?" The clinic counselor told Erica that her uterus was hard, which "proved" she was pregnant. "She made it clear to me that if I didn't hurry up and get an abortion, I wouldn't be able to get one, "Erica explained. "I was so scared that I said, 'Let me book one today.'"

Erica returned to the clinic for her abortion. "When I walked past the picketers, I hurt so much inside," she said. But she did not want to bring a child into such a hurtful world. "When I was a kid, I thought anyone could beat on you whenever they wanted, and there was nothing you could do about it. I didn't want a child to be born into that."

Erica remembers the day explicitly. She went into the clinic and did what she was told. She was lying on the table when the abortionist entered the room. He wouldn't even look at her. "Hi, my name is Erica," she said, struggling to establish some rap port with the doctor. But he was cold and impersonal "If he could be warm to me it would be so much easier," she thought. The doctor still would not make eye contact. "He acted as if I wasn't there," she said. "It was like I was an experiment or a test tube."

The abortionist injected Erica with an anesthetic, but didn't wait for it to take effect. He put something cold inside her. It hurt. "What are you doing?" she exclaimed. "I'm giving you an abortion,' he answered sarcastically. Erica turned her head and stared at a lamp, trying to pray. Then the suction started. Suddenly, severe pain shot through her womb. "I never felt so much pain. I thought I was going to die. I thought they busted my insides, " Erica recalled. "I yelled Stop! Stop giving me an abortion!" I was screaming at the top of my lungs."Other clinic personnel ran into the room. They were holding my hands and even holding me down, " she said. "I screamed, 'I'll have the baby! I'll have the baby!" But they wouldn't stop.

After the procedure, Erica could barely walk. She bled extensively for weeks. Then she received a letter from the clinic. It said there was no "fetal matter' in what she aborted. That meant one of three things: She had a tubal pregnancy, or the baby was still inside her, or she was never pregnant.[7]

The year was 1982, and Jenni, the beautiful 21-year-old, walked into a clinic in Dallas, Texas. Jenni lived with her grandparents. Unmarried and pregnant, she already had one 15-month-old child. So Jenni decided to exercise her "choice" to abort. She came to the clinic with $750 in hand -- enough money to be put to sleep because she could not stand pain.

The staff prepped her for the procedure and put her under the anesthesia. The abortion began normally as the abortionist pierced the bag of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. He pulled out the placenta and then proceeded to remove the baby piece by piece. But the next piece he pulled out was not part of the baby. It was the lining around the mother's colon.

The clinic staff threw the girl into a car and rushed her to a hospital. Carol Everett, formerly the clinic director, remembers her reasoning. "We had to use my car," she wrote. "An ambulance is terrible publicity in front of an abortion clinic."

The abortionist turned to Everett before she drove off. "Don't tell anyone what happened," he said. "Don't even mention my name. " This doctor had botched too many abortions lately.

At the hospital, the doctors rushed Jenni into surgery. She had to have a colostomy. The clinic director was stunned. She had seen this sort of thing happen once too often. "Painful as it was to admit, Everett wrote. I knew we were not helping women have safe abortions; instead we were maiming and even killing them."[7]