Customer Reviews

Why I Am an Abortion Doctor

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I grew up in a staunchly pro-life, baptist household. When I found myself acccidently pregnant at 17 and living on my own, without the support of my family - I felt completely isolated and lost. I even considered suicide. My desicion to have an abortion almost 10 years ago was the single most loving, caring and thoughful thing I had ever done for myself and I have not regretted it once. Having had my abortion performed by Dr. Poppema herself, I read her book and felt immediately connected to the pro-choice cause. I am now a nurse and health educator at a local abortion clinic, I have a beautiful 5 year old daughter by choice and a loving, supportive marriage. I owe the life that I have built, the career that I have chosen and love, the family that I've created and the person I am today to Dr. Suzanne Poppema and her staff who empowered me to make a choice.

American women are at a real crossroads as far as their reproductive rights are concerned. The historic Roe v. Wade decision of the early 1970s could actually be overturned in the next few years if Texas Governor George W. Bush is elected President. Bush would likely have to make several appointments to the Supreme Court, enough in all probability to overturn Roe v. Wade, given the current balance on the Court. Despite his reassurance that he will not attach a pro-life litmus test to his appointments, it is almost certain that his Supreme Court nominees would vote to overturn Roe.

Despite the fact that the right of women to choose an abortion is in peril, there is little consciousness of this fact in American society. Suzanne T. Poppema's book, Why I Am An Abortion Doctor, provides an exceptionally timely wake up call on the subject.

In her book, Dr. Poppema tells the fascinating story of how she rebelled against her family background and the school she attended, and became a committed feminist who rejected the paternalistic notion that the state should be able to govern women when it comes to matters of reproduction. She relates how she trained to become an abortion doctor and what it is like to run a clinic in an era when the anti-choice movement contains a fringe which is committed to taking violent, even lethal action to stop abortions. Dr. Poppema drives to work each day wearing a bullet proof vest. She has to deal with all of the barriers placed in the way of abortion clinics in American society today.

Her book eloquently tells the stories of women who choose to have abortions, because of their marital or financial circumstances, or for other reasons. The real life stories of women who have made the choice to terminate a pregnancy is a very useful antidote to the hateful propaganda which so often dominates the discussion.

Dr. Poppema explains how RU 486---the so-called abortion drug, developed in Europe---holds out the promise of replacing surgical abortions with this alternative, which is now widely available in France, and has been tried on an expermental basis in the United States.

Why I Am An Abortion Doctor is well written, absorbing and to the point on an issue that is bound to gain even greater prominence between now and election day in November.

As a pro-life woman, I disagree wholeheartedly with Dr. Poppema's stance on abortion and many of her conclusions about women's rights. I find many of her statement and descriptions throughout the book appalling. Nevertheless, this book was worth reading for the purpose of hearing a first-hand account of perspective from the "other side" of the issue. My rating does not in any way reflect approval for the philosophies it embraces, or the actions it attempts to justify. But as a resource in seeking understanding of the debate, it has its place.

I wonder, in light of the changes in the political and social landscape over the last decade, if any of Dr. Poppema's impressions of the "antichoice" movement have changed. Does she still see pro-lifers as mainly middle-aged white males motivated by personal interests? Does she still believe pro-life women are weak and repressed by patriarchy? Her depiction of the pro-life side of the issue bears no resemblance to the reality that I know as a pro-life advocate.

This book does not represent myself nor my friends who have experienced abortion...

Jan 10, 2000, at the age of 19, completely alone, and away at college, I found out I was 6 weeks pregnant. It was one of the most unsettling and scary times of my life!

Nobody told me that it's normal that women tend to think the worst when they are in that kind of situation.(Even more so because of the great hormonal changes they experience in the beginning of pregnancy) Or that the worst can only happen if you allow it.

Nobody told me that I was so much stronger than I thought I was.

Nobody told me that I could still make my dreams come true as a young single mother, and that everything would mean so much more once I got there, because I faced a greater challenge and won. And not only would I be strengthen in the process, but I'd have someone I loved dearly to share the celebrations with... my mini-me.

Or how moments after viewing my daughter (via 3-d ultrasound at 9 weeks, which allowed me to see her almost as clear as day!) and seeing how beautiful, perfect, active, and human she was... I was suddenly willing to DIE for her (think mama bear), even though the week before I had seriously considered aborting her to save my lifestyle.(Which I now view as a cop out.)

Nobody told me how I would feel as the most powerful woman on earth after giving birth or how the love I developed for my daughter would drive me to be more successful than I ever thought I could be.

Or how after she was born, I suffered from the guilt over the thought of almost aborting her. And the countless days I'd cry, while clinging to her, thinking "Oh my God, she is so sweet, so special, a total miracle...what if I had actually went through with it!"

Or when I'd hear of a friend who aborted my heart would break because she'd never get to know and love the child she aborted... didn't realize who she had gotten rid of, and the whole tragedy that she didn't know how strong she was at the time, lacked hope in the situation, and resorted to abortion. The worst part, no amount of their tears or remorse, will ever bring their children back! (I'd like to add, that yes, three of the four felt relief immediately after their abortions... but that relief only lasted for a few months to a year afterwards before they started having problems coping with their choice. The forth one, experienced severe emotional problems immediately following.)

One of the 3, Christine, had submitted herself to an abortion after being raped by a stranger (who was NEVER caught)and becoming pregnant. She admitts that she was initially relieved at receiving the abortion because she thought that once she got rid of the pregnancy, she wouldn't have to ever be reminded about the rape again, but it didn't work out that way, she was still haunted by what the man had done to her and the death of her child was added on top of everything else. She has suffered terribly during the last several years and regrets forcing the same violence that was forced upon her onto another innocent person, the child she had carried. She has told me that it wasn't her child's fault for what the man had done to her, and that it was rather ironic that the innocent party was put to death, but not the man who violated her. She had actually felt like she had been assulted a second time through the abortion.

I'll also add that all four of my post-abortive friend now call themselves pro-life. They've lived through the pain, the fear, and the silence for many years and now they speak out about how their abortions affected them, in hopes that a woman will never walk the same path, making the same painful decision they did.

I found it rather interesting that our founding mothers of the beloved feminist movement were anti-abortion. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, Mattie Brinkerhoff, Victoria Woodhull, Emma Goldman, Mary Wollstonecraft, Matilda Gage, Alice Paul, Sarah Norton... to name a few. They often saw, first hand, how abortion negatively affected women and how often men used it as a way of avoiding responsibility at a woman's expense! It still goes on today...

Susan B. Anthony referred to abortion as "child-murder" on more that several occations. On July 8th, 1869, the Revolution, published one of her articles. She wrote:

"Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh, thrice quilty is he who...drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"

Elizabeth Stanton compared abortion to infanticide and touched on her views of abortion in the Revolution, Feb 5th, 1868:

"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."

Mattie Brinkerhoff wrote in the Revolution on Sept 2, 1869:

"When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society-so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged."

Victoria Woodhull wrote:

"The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus." In Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly, Dec 24, 1870.

And later wrote:

"Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child (meaning not getting raped by her husband), nor think of murdering one before its birth." Appeared in the Even Standard (Wheeling, WV) on Nov 17, 1875.

Concerning abortion, Matilda Gage wrote: "

"[This] subject lies deeper down in woman's wrongs than any other...I hesitate not to assert that most of [the responsibility for] this crime lies at the door of the male sex." The Revolution, April 9, 1868.

Gage had it so right. Even today, abortion doesn't make a woman "free". If anything, she walks around wounded, there is often an emptiness that she can't shake...a part of her that feels as if it is missing. And no matter how much time goes by, women often know exactly how old their children should've been.

Over 50% of abortions are done on women who are being pressured, mostly by the man who got them pregnant, to abort. I've had friends who were threatened with abondonment, one was told that he was going to take her kids away and tell the courts she was an unfit mother if she didn't abort the pregnancy, blamed her for the pregnancy and asked her why she'd want to ruin his life, even outright threatened bodily harm if the pregnancy wasn't "taken care of".

Further more, no woman "wants" to have an abortion. Women have abortions because they feel they have NO other choice. (So what kind of a choice is that?) They are cornered usually due to lack of emotional support and/or financial resources, which are to blame, not the child she carries!!!!

Dr. Poppema, today women have more resources than ever available to them. This is not the 60's when unwed mothers may find themselves homeless and living on the streets! My question to you is, of all the women who came to you for abortions because they did not think they could remain in college as a single mother (usually because they were unaware of resources available to them), how many of them did you inform about the Pell Grant which would have assisted them with up to $5,000 a year to cover tuition? Or did you instead, only offer them a "student discount" of $50 off their abortions? I realize that you do run a business, and if you do not get "customers", bills do not get paid and employees do not receive a salary.

Women deserve BETTER than abortion!

Sincerely,

Jennifer Nelson, 25

Independant single mother, homeowner since '02, college graduate, true feminist, and activicate for both women and children.

Liberty, 5

My inspiration, my joy, my life

Will be a woman in 2018...almost aborted late-Jan '00.

I was sickened by this book. This woman is proud of the thousands of lifes she has taken. She evens describes feeling the convulsions of her own baby in utero as she had it injected with concentrated saline. She chose to do this at 20 weeks, at a time when the baby has already been felt kicking and moving for many weeks. As the mother of six beloved children, I simply cannot imagine how another mother could choose her own convenience over the life of her child. How does one negate the value of life based on age? And how is this thought process different than that of Hitler who negated the value of life based on race?

The "right to choose" is one that should be treasured by all, yet why do we use this term for the right to kill? Why not choose not to conceive? Or if an unwanted pregnancy does occur, why not choose to place the baby with one the thousands of couples waiting and waiting to adopt?

There's nothing better than a person who kills children for a living actually writing this book about why it's a touching emotional connective chance to idea of feminism. In fact, this book has changed my mind on abortion. Yes, that's correct... I am now pro choice! I absolutely believe in the right of every woman to have the choice. Choice #1: It's the women's choice to have sex. (And hopefully unprotected so as to have a better chance at an abortion!) Choice #2: I believe in the choice of the female child about to be killed.

WOW! I can't believe the review below about how it was "the most loving, gentle, kind, blah blah blah thing I could do for myself..." If that child was alive today, would he/she agree?

This book is just another example of blind selfishness.

Enjoy