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?
(You may visit Fr. Pavone's Priests for Life website at www.priestsforlife.org.)