Quote: The Department of Health noted, “After one of the procedures the nurse was observed preparing the room for the next patient. With gloved hands the nurse removed the visibly soiled paper cover from the procedure table. With the same gloves, the nurse pulled fresh paper to cover the table and prepare it for the next patient. A packet of sterile instruments was then opened and set up for the physician. The gloves had not been changed. Following the procedure, the dirty instruments were taken to the cleaning room. Interview with staff revealed that she did not know how much disinfecting solution to use when doing cleaning. In addition one of the two sinks was being used to discard dirty solutions. After scrubbing the instruments, the staff person placed them into this dirty sink and gave them only a water rinse before wrapping them for the sterilization process. Residue may have been left from the matter that had been dumped into this sink. This residue could adhere to the cleaned instruments. “

Quote: “In the case of abortion services, the stigma and silencing that women endure makes the field wide open to non-quality providers.”

Quote: “ The girl experienced ''sudden and profound cardiac collapse in the recovery room'' after an ''uneventful procedure.'' (This statement was sent to reporters by the abortion clinic where a 13-year old patient died).

Quote: When asked if she was trained to be a counselor at the abortion clinic

her answer was, “ No, most people that counsel there did not have much training, before they started working there, that’s the way it worked.”

Quote: "It is believed that the majority of abortions for adolescents are carried out by unskilled staff in dangerous conditions. "

Quote: In an article regarding early medical abortions, British journalists spoke with a number of providers.

"It is true that there is a reduced risk," one Pembrokeshire nurse told us. "Certainly, if one undertakes the surgical option, there are a good deal of things that go wrong. Patients have been known to have their cervix punctured, which can lead to infertility or worse. And of course, there's an inherent risk in going under general anaesthetic in itself."

The article noted that, Due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter, the anonymity of the four professionals - whose views have been put forward here - has been preserved.

Quote: "I am ashamed that I have tirelessly defended a man (George Tiller) who subjected me to so much pain. I told my friend that story and she said that it was the most inhumane, horrific story of abortion she's ever heard.”

Quote: ''It's true that abortion providers are perceived as not very good doctors -- that they have no alternative so they do abortions, that they cannot earn a living any other way.''

Quote: "Would we like to do it (Inspect abortion clinics) more frequently? Absolutely," said Williamson, the Alabama state health officer said. "But the nursing homes get more inspection because those are federally funded surveys. We have to figure out how to do the clinic inspections with state dollars."

Quote: "…Years ago, a clinic counselor in British Columbia told me that one of her patients went into the procedure room apparently fine with her decision to have an abortion. During the abortion, at a stage when it was too late to stop the procedure, the woman started screaming "You murderers!" and other invectives at everyone in the room….

At times, clinic staff understandably become frustrated and angry when they have to deal with abusive, hostile, or hypocritical patients."

Quote: ''Abortions for teenagers that young are a tragedy. But abortion is a very safe medical procedure...safer than a delivery.” (Comments made after a 13-year-old girl died from her abortion in Chicago).

Quote: "We had hoped that it (abortion patient's death) wouldn’t get national publicity because of the political nature of all this. We want to make sure that women have choices when it comes to abortion services, and if you regulate it too strictly, you then deny women the access to service." (Comments made regarding a Maryland abortion clinic where at least two women had died).

Quote: Consent to outpatient surgery form states, " I understand that the purpose of an abortion is to end a pregnancy. I understand that my first trimester abortion consists of stretching open the mouth of the uterus (cervix) and removing the contents of my uterus-with surgical instruments and gentle suction. As a result of surgical procedures there may be material risks of: infection, allergic reaction, disfiguring scars, severe loss of blood, loss of function of a limb or organ, paralysis, paraplegia or quadriplegia, brain damage, cardiac arrest or death. In addition to these material risks, there may be other possible risks involved in the procedure including but not limited to: perforation, cervical tear, formation of blood clots in the uterus, hemorrhage, blood transfusions, DIC: the inability to clot blood which may be fatal, Fistula formation: An opening between bowel, bladder, ureter, vagina, and/or skin, emboli: clots that might travel to other parts of my body and be fatal, incomplete abortion, missed abortion, cervical incompetency, emotional distress, infection, possible need for immediate surgery or other additional surgery which might include a hysterectomy, laparascopy, and laparotomy,and ectopic pregnancy" This document also details the extreme risks of anesthesia and states that "No guarantees of assurance have been made to me concerning the results of this procedure." The patient is told to sign her name, but the name of the doctor performing the abortion is not included or revealed on this form.

Quote: "The bulk of our doctors come from out of state. They fly in, they fly out."

Quote: During a 1989 inspection, health inspectors found: “ The clinic employees unlicensed non-nursing staff to monitor patients in the recovery room.
Single use disposable equipment such as the suction tube used to remove the contents of the uterus during the abortion, plastic syringes used to give medication into the vein or into the muscle are reused.
Biohazards waste material is not disposed of properly.
Abortion suction machines were dirty, stained and the tubing contained residual matter from previously completed abortions.
The facility failed to properly dispose of blood-covered needles and sharp instruments, which had been used to give medications.
Dirty, used patient gowns were improperly discarded.
A plastic shopping bag of these soiled used patient gowns was hanging from an oxygen tank.
There was no soap found anywhere in the facility to allow staff and clients to wash their hands to prevent the spread of infection and cross contamination.
Infection control procedures are so inadequate that patient safety is threatened. Stirrups of procedure tables were padded with underpads and tape that was stained with what appeared to be blood.
The clinic does not ensure patient confidentiality.”

Quote: "LouAnne Herron's (abortion) death is a complete tragedy. I found it completely heartbreaking because he (abortionist John Biskind) let her bleed to death. But putting rules on the clinic wouldn't have changed anything. The principle of standard of care already is in place. He (Biskind) ignored those standards. No amount of regulation is going to make a bad doctor stop being a bad doctor."

Quote: The Arizona Republic reported that Finkel called John Biskind ( who was convicted of manslaughter for the abortion death of his patient)

an "incompetent doctor who deserves to pay for his mishandling of Herron's abortion.

But he said the verdict will fuel the fire of abortion opponents who want to prevent women from getting the services they have a right to."

Quote: “ If you asked any other doctor about their patient that died, they would say,” Which one?”

Quote: "I was shocked, Six officers came to my house to arrest me. I spent 12 hours in a police van with other prisoners and three days in jail. It was absolutely horrible." (Comments after an abortion that he performed resulted in the death of the patient)

Quote: Following a charge of manslaughter in an abortion related death, Steir said patients put "themselves at risk by waiting so long" to have an abortion. "When you get past 12 weeks, the incidence of complications rises dramatically."

Quote: " The overwhelming majority of doctors who do abortions past 16 weeks in California have been investigated. Many, if not all of them, are on probation, and quite a few of them have either surrender their license or had their license taken away."

Quote: "I think it's (abortion clinic regulations) an effort by the governor to get a lot of publicity and to intimidate people who want to provide safe abortions." (Comments made after the state passed stricter laws regulating abortion clinics since 25% of the abortion clinics in South Florida were closed due to deplorable conditions).

Quote: "shocking and dismaying" stated the NOW president, following the investigation of an unsafe Birmingham abortion clinic.

She stated that the closure of the clinic was a setback for women in Alabama, where there are now only nine abortion clinics remaining.

"Every time a women's health clinic closes, it is a huge blow for women and it's very unfortunate. But women must be protected, and there are standards -- as there are for every health care facility -- and every facility needs to abide by the rules."

Quote: "Even legal abortion clinics across the country continue to victimize women, financially as well as medically. In 1973, HERS. was instrumental in closing down a shoddy Michigan Avenue clinic, but we know that unscrupulous and shoddy practices are the norm, and not the exception on Chicago abortion clinics. Public hearings were held just last month on the atrocities committed by one such Chicago clinic which was being sued by three victims of botched abortions, one of whom died of complications due to her abortion."

Quote: Made this comment to the media after a woman died at the clinic, "We've had patients calling asking questions. We told them that the doctor who performed the abortion has been fired and they feel fairly safe."

Quote: "The complications associated with RU-486 far exceed the complications of surgical abortion," (Stutes refuses to offer pill-based (RU-486) abortions and said he was uneasy about agreeing with abortion opponents on anything. "But the truth is the truth."

Quote: "Providers offering Mifeprex, should be aware that , as with other types of abortions, cases of serious bacterial infection, including very rare cases of fatal septic shock, have been reported following the use of Mifeprex." (RU-486)

Quote: On their Patient Agreement consent form it states, "I know that in some cases, treatment will not work. This happens in about 5 to 8 women out of 100 who use this treatment. I understand that if my pregnancy continues after any part of the treatment, there is a chance that there may be birth defects. I understand that if the medicines I take do not end my pregnancy and I decide to have a surgical procedure to end my pregnancy, or if I need a surgical procedure to stop my bleeding, my provider will do the procedure or refer me."

Quote: " Cramping and bleeding are expected with this treatment. But sometimes you can get cramping and bleeding and still be pregnant. Other common symptoms of treatment include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, back pain, and tiredness. Although cramping and bleeding are an expected part of ending a pregnancy, rarely, serious and potentially life threatening bleeding, infections, or other problems can occur following an abortion. Serious infection has resulted in death."

Quote: "Abortion, particularly early suction curettage, gives the impression of not being a very difficult procedure. It’s fast, very safe and highly effective. However, impressions can be misleading. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, everything goes very smoothly. But it’s that one time that can be associated with complications, some of which are very serious, even deadly."

Quote: "The same is true of surgical abortion---it is feasible for nonclinicians to do it, but without question the risks are greater in terms of infection, incomplete abortion and uterine perforation, and even more importantly, it’s not clear to me how effectively those complications would be recognized and managed."

Quote: "...all of us who are well-trained to provide abortions and who have considerable clinical experience still have complications. About once a year, the average experienced abortion provider may perforate a uterus. Indeed, a pregnant uterus is much more easily perforated than a nonpregnant one."

Quote: "But we know from many papers in the literature that abortion-related complications decrease with experience. So if the best abortion providers still have occasional complications, nonclinicians who may provide such procedures on an infrequent basis will undoubtedly have a higher incidence of complications."

Quote: The Alabama state medical board took taken action against abortionist Deborah Lyn Levich and nurse practitioner Janet F. Onthank King who worked at Summit Medical Center a Birmingham abortion clinic.

State health officials found women were getting second trimester abortions without a doctor determining the viability of the fetus."This is the first time I've ever issued an emergency order to close an abortion clinic," said Don Williamson, Alabama's health officer. The state determined that abortions were being performed without a doctor determining the viability of the fetus.

In a report, state health officials said they found "egregious lapses in care, including non-physicians performing abortions, severely underestimating the gestational age of a fetus, failure to appropriately refer or treat a patient with a dangerously elevated blood pressure, and performing an abortion on a late-term pregnancy."

The board of medical examiners order accuses Levich of allowing her nurse practitioner to prescribe drugs and render services for which she was not approved.

Quote: "If this had been a gallbladder operation or liposuction or a heart bypass or any other medical procedure, we would not be involved in a murder case."

Quote: Eleanor Drey, acting medical director of the Women's Options Center at San Francisco General Hospital, said that tearing the cervix is a risk during abortions, although it is rare. "When pregnant women bleed they can bleed a lot."

Quote: "There is absolutely no safe way to terminate a pregnancy on your own! Trying to do so could result in serious complications, including death."

Quote: Regarding the abortion pill- RU-486: "What we do know is that in this country we are seeing the simultaneous emergence of two virulent, often fatal illnesses affecting otherwise healthy people," said Paul Seligman, FDA associate director for safety policy.

Quote: "When he told us we had to cover up . . . if it means we have to throw that folder away and write another folder, we did it," she testified when asked how far the Southhaven staff went to change records to make it appear the clinic had complied with Mississippi's rule that requires a woman to wait 24 hours for an abortion.

Quote: When expecting a state abortion clinic inspection, "we have stayed at that office from 9 a.m. until 10 that night knowing what Dr. Tucker wanted - to falsify those records. He told us that if we didn't get through, we didn't have our jobs," she testified.

Quote: "There's a great deal of craft to this procedure. Frankly I don't think I was any good at all until I had done 3,000 or 4,000."

Quote: "I now see that the medical care I received there (George Tiller's) was the worst kind of medical care one could ever [have] received."

Quote: " N.O.W. is appalled to learn of any doctor engaged in the sexual exploitation of women, but this is only one doctor and one incident, others working to provide safe abortions should not be tainted by it."(Commenting after a local abortionist was arrested for sexually abusing his female patient).

Quote: "There isn't any operation any doctor performs on any part of one's body that can be done with guarantees of no complications"

Quote: ''You've got such a degree of harassment and intimidation that physicians who used to perform these services as part of their general practice of obstetrics and gynecology have moved away from that, As a result, there's a window for unscrupulous providers.''

Quote: "One of the interesting things that happened after New York State liberalized it's abortion laws is that abortion clinics opened up all over the state. They were not always run by the most professional or skilled or experienced physicians."

Quote: "my sister had once worked in an abortion clinic & her stories of what went on at work horrified me."

Quote: “ The entire physical plant from the entrance, examining rooms, surgical suite, recovery room, bathrooms, lab room, offices, sterilizer room and storage rooms is filthy. Old dirty mops were found leaning against walls in the bathroom and sterilizer room. A large, dead cockroach was found n the counter in the sterilizing room. Men’s old socks were found on shelves in the recovery room. After the procedures, patients lie on one of seven old, torn, ripped, and flat examining tables that are lined up next to each other in a back room of the clinic. The gloves they reported as sterile were open and not sterile. Gauze pads that were stained yellow were found recently sterilized and packaged for use. There was no hot water available in the clinic including the surgical suite, recovery room, or the bathrooms. None of the three bathrooms nor the sink in the recovery room had any soap.”

Quote: "I have used 4-, 5-, 6-millimeter cannulas and still occasionally I have perforated a woman's uterus. I am a specialist, board certified. I have all the credentials and still I screwed up. They are saying the procedure is so benign you can't harm anybody or cause any trouble. I don't believe it. Those who propose Menstrual Extraction say they can tell when the uterus is empty.”

Yet even with the more advanced equipment used in clinic abortions, he says, "I may leave tissue."

Quote: Margarette Wooten told a court in a case involving the death of an abortion clinic that she quit because, "It was just a slaughterhouse and I couldn't take it any more."

Quote: "It's disappointing that the pill is not moving faster and gaining wider acceptance,but the mind-set of health care providers is that they still need to be convinced this is a viable, safe alternative to surgical abortion."

Quote: "Everyone at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles feels tremendous sympathy for this woman's family and we share their grief. While abortion is extremely safe, this is a tragic reminder that, as with all medical procedures, some risk does exist." (NOTE: this statement was made following the death of a patient at the clinic)

Quote: Said this after the death of an abortion patient, "Everyone at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles feels tremendous sympathy for this woman's family and we share their grief. While abortion is extremely safe, this is a tragic reminder that, as with all medical procedures, some risk does exist."

Quote: “When I talked to other physicians whose patients were referred here I saw problems that could be easily corrected.”

Quote: "There are a lot of people who know this man (abortionist Steven C. Brigham) . He owns clinics all over the place. He has a really negative past. We are concerned about a physician whose license has been revoked in New York State and has questionable medical practices."

Quote: “ The clinic failed to ensure adequate restroom facilities for the patients and staff due to the fact that the clinic had no toilets. Staff and patients were using a portable commode. The facility failed to provide basic necessities for infection control such as no hot water. Single use disposable items were reused. These items include disposable urinary foley catheters. Reuse of such products is considered unacceptable practice. In addition, putting an unsterile tube into a patient’s urinary bladder may result in serious infection and harm to the patients. Single use plastic suction catheter used in the abortion procedure was reused.”

Quote: Miriam Ehechy spoke in San Francisco on in June of 2006, at Womyn Forum about abortion practices. According to the SF Bay Area Indymedia Ehechy is "a veteran of struggles for information and safety of women's reproductive rights. She is a long-time community organizer. Her address gave testimony to the ongoing debate that there are unsafe abortion practices that are being suppressed even in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work serves as a model for reproductive rights for women. She has spent much of her life fighting for women's rights and serving a community she calls the "silent group" who most often will not come forward about violations of privacy or medical malpractice because of sigmas associated. Ehechy invited four immigrant women to give testimony before an audience of their experiences within San Francisco's own abortion clinics. A series of three poems and one song were composed along with essays by Ehechy."

Quote: "There were jagged edges on some of the instruments that were supposed to be smooth, which literally tore the uterus of this young woman." said Attorney General John Cornyn says, in the wake of the death of a 15-year-old Jamie Garcia, who died from massive infection, investigators found one nightmare condition after another at the clinic in Houston.

Quote: Following the investigation of several women dying at Hachamovitch's many clinics across the country, 20/20 reported that, "In a written statement to 20/20, Dr. Hachamovitch insisted that his facilities have provided safe and affordable abortions for thousands of women and said viewers should not draw a "distorted picture" from "a few tragic deaths and rare adverse occurrences."

Quote: “Employees of the Pensacola clinic were devastated (at the abortion patient's death). Patients die all the time, whether it's a gall bladder operation or a hernia or a tonsillectomy, and nobody cares. It's not front-page news. Any patient that's lost is terrible. What makes this different? We did everything we were supposed to do." (Comments made after the death of a patient at their abortion clinic was reported in the news, the girl bled to death on her way home from her abortion at the clinic).

Quote: "Certainly, if one undertakes the surgical option, there are a good deal of things that go wrong. Patients have been known to have their cervix punctured, which can lead to infertility or worse. And of course, there's an inherent risk in going under general anaesthetic in itself."

Quote: "During the entire period which followed until the time of the woman’s death. All of us remained in contact with her (dead abortion patient) family, friends, and medical staff providing assistance and support." Windle went on to state how safe abortion was despite this “unfortunate death” at her abortion clinic.

Quote: "None of these women should be dying; it's shocking," (Commenting on the safety of RU-486)

Quote: In the United States, some abortion doctors have decided against using RU-486 altogether. Among them is Dr. Peter Bours of Portland, Ore., "I'm not sure I want to be in a shared insurance group policy with people doing medical procedures because you share that risk," Dr. Bours said.

Quote: "One needs to tell patients that the medical procedure, even though it seems more natural, may be more likely to result in death."

Quote: ''It's seen as the dirty work of our field. The sad truth is that the people who moonlight at the clinics are grade-B doctors. They're not the cream of the crop. And it's not because they're committed. It's because they can't find steady work.''

Quote: "I am not a Catholic. I am not a man. I am not a right-to-lifer. But I oppose the abortion drug RU486. I am a long-time feminist and health activist who is committed to women's access to safe and legal abortion, and I am getting exasperated with the pro-choice movement's simplistic message about RU486. It is not safe and it will not expand women's choices.” (Klein is an associate professor in women's studies at Deakin University in Melbourne.)

Quote: "(Abortion doctors are ) mostly physicians who have had difficulty establishing regular ob-gyn practices."

Quote: "Out of his first six months of work, there are nine malpractice suits," Crist says. "After it was apparent the guy was a klutz, they kept using him, and trying to cover for him, because they couldn't find another provider. It is a bad picture, It has boiled down to a bad picture."

Quote: "You get a reputation if you have a couple of patients who show up bleeding in the emergency room. This is a conservative medical community down here." That's one reason why Robert Livingston, says he has no desire to begin offering Mifeprex, (RU-486)

Quote: "If we see a doctor out there who's really hurting women, it's incumbent upon us to blow the whistle - no matter what the outcome. But it's a real (difficult) choice, because you could end up with someone worse" - or no doctor at all.

Quote: "Tommy (abortionist) should get the appropriate penalty,On the other hand, I really do think Tommy in many ways is a victim." This comment was made after abortionist Tommy Tucker surrendered his medical license because a woman died under anesthesia while he was removing the birth control Norplant from her arm. Complaints also say a woman died four years ago during an abortion he performed.

Quote: “Any in-office procedure can have complications from time to time. Even in the best of hands, things can go wrong.” (Commenting on the safety of abortion)

Quote: "Turkish had left parts of the baby inside of her", is what an abortion patient said the nurse told her after her abortion by Turkish.

Quote: Carol Petraitis, an abortion-rights advocate with the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she would not refer women to a facility Brigham owned. "It seems to me if I were sending a friend" to an office, she said, "you wouldn't want to go to a clinic that was run by somebody who has so many problems with his own medical license."

Quote: Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation - said "abortion is one of the safest medical procedures provided in America . . . because of the quality and skill of the doctors that provide abortions. "And Steven Brigham is an exception to this rule."

Quote: "We have serious concerns about the quality of care he provides," said Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation.

Quote: "There is a fight among many providers who do not want regulation, but stories like this show exactly why we should want it." (Responding to the the horrors at one NY abortion clinic)

Quote: Susan Hill, who runs seven clinics in seven states - including North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi, which all have some sort of clinic regulations -says she believes the (abortion clinic regulations) guidelines have been beneficial to abortion providers. "I know it's not the political thing to say, but they've really helped us to be as good as we can be," says Hill, "It forces us to operate at the highest standards."

Quote: "I have my head up because I know we do good work," (stated while Tucker was investigated for the death of at least one of his patients).

Quote: "Both surgical and medication abortion are extremely safe and effective procedures." The two kinds of abortion "have comparable risks with the exception of what we have recently seen as it relates to septic fatalities."

Quote: Abortion more dangerous than birth: "In 1990 a public health professor and I surveyed Virginia physicians who might have treated women for complications from abortion. There were at least 382 percent more complications encountered by our survey than the total number of abortion complications reported to Virginia by all physicians over the years from 1985 to 1988. We asked that doctors tell us about complications they treated where the abortion was performed by someone else. Thus, the true complication rate was significantly under-represented." (Letter by Bob Marshall represents the 13th District - parts of Loudoun and Prince William Counties - in Virginia's House of Delegates.)

Quote: "I testified in an Oregon case against a doctor who really did not do well by a patient. As a society, I think we've been in denial about the risks of abortion, both because of ideology, and because of economics. There are a lot of respectable doctors doing a lousy job. It's not a sin to have a complication, but it is a sin if you have not tried to prevent it. And it's a very serious sin if you abandon it."

Quote: Dr. Frank H. Jackson of Houlton wrote this scathing article published in "Transactions of the Maine Medical Association" following the news about a Bangor Maine abortionist Dr. William H.H. Briggs who performed an illegal abortion on a woman who died of septic peritonitis whom the jury found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder: "To our disgrace, the men who do the most of the abortions in this state are not outcasts from their profession. Some of them are members of this state society and its county branches; as a shield for their rottenness they are sometimes seemingly earnest workers in our church and social life; they are often pointed out as honest, hard-working physicians, but some of them will kill a baby in its mother's womb with as little compassion as the butcher in the abattoir performs his daily work on the killing floor. With all due respect to the judiciary of the State of Maine, I ask why a man who has destroyed two human beings should receive only three years in our State Prison, while a tramp who stole a few dollars should get almost five."

Quote: said he was upset when his kids left home "Suddenly, they were grown and they were gone. I was suicidal for about eight months, and finally I popped out of it." (question: was he performing abortions while he felt this way?)

Quote: “ Sterile techniques were routinely compromised. Clinic staff indicated that equipment, clearly labeled with instructions to dispose of after a single use, were reused. Paper used to wrap equipment for sterilization is reused until it is so dirty with blood or ripped that it must be discarded. Clinic staff could not report when the Vacuum Suction machine had been last cleaned. The clinic had no policies or procedure for protecting patient confidentiality. Infection control procedures are so inadequate that patient safety is threatened. The clinic does not conduct tests to definitely determine that a patient is pregnant prior to performing an abortion.”

Quote: "I felt if I hadn't been there they would have wrapped her dead body and thrown it in the garbage." Reported the friend of an abortion patient who died at the clinic.