I 'm Dr. Kathi Aultman.
I am a retired OBGYN, and I used to be an
abortionist.
And I'd like to tell you the story of how
I went from being someone who aborted babies
to someone who now tries to save babies.
After college I took a year off to make money
to go to medical school.
During that time I met my future husband and
I got pregnant.
And decided that abortion was the best option
for me.
Later I regretted that decision, but at the
time, I thought that was the best thing I
should do.
When I entered medical school, I truly believed
that abortion was a woman's right to choose,
and I was very adamant about it.
I wanted to help women.
During my training, I learned how to do D&C
with suction abortions, and then I sought
out extra training to be able to do D&E abortions,
or dismemberment abortions.
After getting my medical license I was able
to start moonlighting doing abortions at a
clinic in a nearby city.
I got pregnant during the last year of my
residency, and during that time, I still continued
to do abortions.
And really didn't have any qualms about it.
I felt that my baby was wanted, their babies
were not, I didn't see any problem with that.
What did change my mind, was when I went back
to the clinic after delivering my baby.
I ran into three patients that changed my
life.
With the first patient, I realized that I
had done three of her previous abortions.
And when I objected, and didn't want to do
it, staff told me that I didn't have that
right.
That it was her right to choose.
Even if she wanted to use abortion as her
birth control.
She had the abortion, I talked to her there
afterwards.
She still did not want to use birth control.
And wanted to use abortion as her backup.
The second patient came in with a friend.
And oftentimes the patients did want to see
the tissue.
The friend asked her, "Do you want to see
the tissue?"
And she snapped at her and said, "I don't
want to see it, I just want to kill it."
And I wanted to say, "What did this baby ever
do to you?"
The last patient had four children already,
and she and her husband felt that they just
couldn't afford another child.
So, she cried throughout the whole time at
the clinic.
It just broke my heart.
It was at that point that somehow, I made
the baby/fetus connection.
And the fact that the baby was not wanted,
was no longer enough for me to do the abortion.
I never did another abortion.
The only time I had any qualms other than
that, was when I did my neonatal intensive
care unit rotation.
And I realized that some of the babies I was
trying to save, were the same gestation as
babies that I had aborted.
The problem is, that I still believed that
a women had the right to choose abortion.
I still believed in abortion.
And I still referred patients for an abortion.
As I began my practice though, I noticed that
there were women who kept their unwanted pregnancies,
even very young girls, and they seemed to
do fine.
And then I was seeing other women who had
abortions, who were coming in with psychological
problems, and being extremely distressed.
I was also seeing complications of abortion.
And this didn't jive with the feminist rhetoric
that I had so closely embraced.
So I began to be a little uncomfortable.
What finally changed me, was a very loving
friend gave me an article.
Said, "Would you consider reading this?
I know what your position on abortion is,
but could you just read this?"
It was an article that compared abortion to
the Holocaust.
Suddenly I realized that I was no different
from the German doctors who did horrible experiments
on people.
Or the Nazis who exterminated so many.
I suddenly understood why they could do what
they did.
Because, I could do what I did.
I did not see the fetus as a human being.
Just like the Germans did not see the Jews
as human beings.
When you don't see someone as human, you can
do whatever you want to them, and not feel
bad about it.
That was the point where I became pro-life.
And after that, it took a lot of prayer, and
a lot of counseling, for me to get past the
fact that I was basically a mass murderer.
And to get over the fact that I had aborted
my own child, as well as so many others.
You know, I always love to meet people that
I delivered.
But it's bittersweet, because I know there
are so many that I will never meet, because
I aborted them.
The thing to remember, is that although we
can't see who these little people are, they
ARE people.
They're still in the womb, but they are people.
And we don't know what they are going to be,
or who they are going to become.
But we need to give them a chance.
