Abortionist felt like she was ‘flying’ when she first crushed a preborn baby’s skull
In his 2022 memoirabortionist Christine Henneberg describes the abortion procedures she witnessed and performed.
A surgical first trimester abortion is performed by inserting an instrument called a cannula into the woman’s womb. It is attached to a suction machine. The strong suction rips the boy apart and pulls him out. The abortionist must check the remains to make sure they have removed all parts of the body, or the woman may develop an infection.
Henneberg says, “At 10 to 12 weeks, it’s clear what you’re looking for: tiny hands and feet, a string of vertebrae, the translucent eggshell of the fetal skull called the calvarium.”
Earlier in the pregnancy, at five to eight weeks gestation (when the baby is three to six weeks after fertilization) the child is underdeveloped, very small, and completely torn apart by the suction machine. There may be no visible body parts. But Henneberg saw the gestational sac. He described it as looking “delicate and transparent” but said:
[P]ress this tiny membrane under your gloved fingertip, and you’ll feel something stronger than you ever imagined. No matter how much you pull and press, it will not tear.
It is enough to be careful of what you have done—something unnatural, yes, and nature has put up enormous barriers against it.
Abortion, Henneberg admits, is “unnatural.”
“Torture” on Women
Henneberg also writes about the pain abortion causes in women. Describing the dilation of a woman’s cervix with laminaria (also called osmotic dilators) before D&E procedures in the second trimester, she said, “Putting in osmotic dilators can be very painful… When I was studying of the procedure, many of the women cried out in pain… At first, I couldn’t stand it. I feel like I’m torturing them…”
Now, after years of abortion, Henneberg is used to causing pain.
Henneberg was not the only abortionist to mention women’s pain during abortion. Said an abortionist,”[the women] are crying out in agony, but we’re just doing what we’re doing. In a different situation [it] it would be considered torture, but we do it, and you know we’re all just packing it in.”
Henneberg revealed that when a woman was on the abortion table, she was told “it’s okay to cry, but not to scream” because her screams could scare other women who were still waiting for their abortions.
Describes Second Trimester Dilation and Evacuation Abortion
Henneberg describes how she performed a D&E abortion:
Because fetal parts are larger and tighter, they cannot fit into a small plastic cannula. Instead, I used forceps, which look like thin salad tongs, to remove the fetus. I should have enough room to maneuver the handles, opening and closing them to grasp the fetal parts and pull them out of the uterus.
The child is cut and pulled, to pieces.
When Henneberg learned how to perform D&E abortions at Planned Parenthood, she remembers her instructor, the abortionist, whom she identified only as Rebecca, saying, “Start with the most proximal part of the body and then take the next one, the next, the next. Calvarium, arm, trunk, leg, placenta. That’s how to make a good D&E.”
Henneberg Says Breaking Up Babies is “Beautiful.”
Henneberg loves abortion. He says:
I think there is nuance and beauty in exploring the womb, a three-dimensional space that cannot be seen with one’s own eyes. (A few nights after a day of abortion training, I dreamed of cave-diving in the dark, using my hands to navigate vast rooms and hidden passageways).
Henneberg describes Rebecca doing the D&E, saying, “[Rebecca] parts of the fetus began to be pulled out: calvarium, arms, spine and thorax, one leg, then another, then the placenta cushion.”
Then Henneberg said:
I’ve seen D&Es before and assisted with a few. But I’ve never seen anything like what Rebecca did… It’s not like surgery, but like some athletic feat. He moved with the kind of speed and agility that made the whole thing look easy, beautiful, and also impossible…
“See my hands? See my angle here? It’s like a dance.” And it was. She moved her body like a boxer or a ballerina—her stance was wide, her arms were strong, her movements precise and efficient.
After cutting the child open and pulling him out, Rebecca uses the suction machine to remove any remaining baby cuts.
Henneberg said, “When he made his last pass with the cannula, he seemed to enter a quiet, inner space, like a pianist playing a beautiful chord progression.”
Dissecting preborn children, in Henneberg’s mind, is like art, music, athletics, or dance.
The Joy of Crushing a Baby’s Skull
Henneberg also described the joy and satisfaction he felt when he learned how to properly crush the skull of a newborn baby.
After an abortionist cuts off a second-trimester baby, the child’s severed head is left in the uterus. The abortionist must remove it with forceps.
Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino describes it:
The hardest part of a D&E abortion is getting the baby’s head… You can be sure you’re holding it if the Sopher clamp spreads as far as your fingers. You’ll know you’re right when you crush the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That’s the baby’s brain. You can pick up the skull pieces.
If you have a bad day like I often do, a little face might come out and stare back at you.
The first few times Henneberg tried to crush a baby’s head, he saw it slip out of his forceps. He did it, he says, “clumsily.” But, he said, “In the next procedure, I touched the calvarium on the first try. It was like I was flying, soaring under Rebecca’s strong and beautiful wings.”
Henneberg is happy, because “I found what I came from, even with talent.”
Source: Christine Henneberg No Limits: An Abortion Doctor Becomes a Mother (San Francisco, California, 2022) 215-216, 232-233, 218, 230, 238, 220, 236-237, 239
