Sallie Tisdale's We Do Abortions Here

In Sallie Tisdale’s We do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Story, the author struggles with the morality of working at a clinic where she helps perform abortions as a registered nurse. She wrestles with wanting to help the scared women who come into her clinic while also being destroyed by the sights and cruelty of aborting babies. She battles back and forth throughout the entire essay and remains relatively undecided on where she lies ethically on the issue, stating on pages 715 and 716 that as she cleans out baby remains out of jars, “.. I imagine a world where this won’t be necessary, and return to the world where it is.” This shows how she is traumatically affected by her work, but she believes it is a necessary evil for the women walking into

Tisdale conveys the mother as helpless with no other option than for her unborn baby to end up in “another basin.” The author’s suggestion that the baby and mother will go through initial hard times due to her addiction is true, however, Tisdale fails to mention, throughout the entire essay, options for the futures of the babies ranging outside of abortion. In this specific example, Tisdale never attempted to communicate to the young mother that keeping the child could force the mother to get on the right path. Or that the mother could reach out for governmental assistance, assistance that helps pay for food, shelter and other needs of parents and the child. There are thousands of infertile couples who would love for a chance to adopt an unwanted baby. I have a cousin who works in the baby ward of a hospital in Columbus and she has loads upon loads of stories with women who were addicted to drugs, had a baby and were able to turn their life around because of the responsibility they felt. These stories are heartwarming, but also contain lots of examples of how the government and other aid groups are more than willing to help needy mothers. But Tisdale’s only assistance to the girl is to, “utter another kind phrase of reassurance.” The author often makes referrals to the naive

Growing up with 4 younger siblings and many cousins has taught me that all babies can turn into wonderful people. By killing a baby and preventing its development into a full person is the ultimate undervaluing of a life. To take the life of a future being, especially in the horrific way of abortions which is essentially tearing and vacuuming a fetus out of a pregnant woman, would wreak havoc on anyone having to witness it day after day. The author’s battle inside of her heart would not exist if she taught these women and couples about the many alternative options that did not end in their baby dying. Amidst discussing this ethical battle, Tisdale states, “Each basin I empty is a promise- but a promise broken a long time ago,” and is speaking of the women’s unpreparedness to raise a child and the large number of women who fall victim to failed contraceptives. It is easily argued that the promise, made with the decision to have sex, of the mother to her child should be stronger than the promise of two mates. Even Tisdale correctly says on page 713 that, “If the human bond to a child were as primitive and unflinchingly narrow as that of other animals, there would be no abortion,” showing that these women and couples value a newborn life less than a wild animal would value its offspring.