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Abortion is Big Business
A number of abortion providers who have left the business have discussed how lucrative abortion was. Here are some quotes taken from speeches given at "Meet the Abortion Providers" conventions. You can read more from these former providers in the Former Providers section.
From the Testimony of Dr. Anthony Levantino, former abortion provider:
"Along the way you find out you make a lot of money doing abortions...I'll give you an example. When I am going to deliver a baby, I'm going to have that woman in my office for seven to eight months; she will have unlimited office visits. I get calls all hours of the day and night. More often than not, I'm getting up in the middle of the night. In Eastern New York, I can tell yhou, at this time of year, it's not a particularly fun thing to do: to go out in a blizzard and drive to the hospital, sit by a bedside for hours watching somebody in labor, accomplishing the delivery, hoping to God that everything works out well, as it usually does. And then following her afterwards; follow-up visits in the office. Then you wait and youi expect that everything's over. Usually it is over, but sometimes its not. Six or seven years later you suddenly get a request from a lawyer that they want the medical records because the baby has a problem of some sort. That doesn't mean you're responsible, but this nation is set up in such a way that families, if they have a deformed or an unhealthy child for any reason, and healthcare costs being what they are...You have no recourse; you have no source of funds other than going back and suing the people who did the delivery in the first place......Or, I can do an abortion. I can work in an abortion clinic. I work 9 to 5; I'm never bothered at night; I never have to go out on weekends; I more money than my obstetrician brethren. And I don't have to face the liability. That's a big factor, a huge perk."
"In my practice, we were averaging between $250 and $500 for an abortion, and it was cash. That's the only time as a doctor you can say, either pay me up front or I'm not going to take care of you. It’s totally elective… Either you have the money or you don’t. And they get it.”
From the Testimony of Carol Everett, former abortion clinic owner and worker
"I have seen doctors walk out after three hours work and split $4,500 between them on a Saturday morning. More, if you go longer into the day, of course. The doctor walks in, sees the patient for the first time, pats her on the leg, says, Hi, baby, how are you? You call them 'baby' so you don't have to remember their name....And he doesn't really ask her any questions. It's just get the abortion done. If he discovers that she may be further along than anyone thought she was, they stop right there, collect the money, and then finish the procedure….If abortion is such a good thing, why don’t they go ahead and do the abortion then, and trust you to pay the $200 later? That’s not the way it is.”
“When I mentioned that this particular abortion clinic was a big money-making operation, I only remember one of the doctors stating at one particular time that he could do three abortions in ten minutes and make the same amount of money as delivering one woman full term, and he might have to get up in the middle of the night to go deliver this baby.”
Abortion provider Dr. Don Sloan also discussed how much money he made when he first began doing abortions.
“It was a cash business. The price was right for the service provided….But we had volume. The receptionists at the desk collected the fees, and when the cash boxes overflowed, as they did nearly every day, they filled the drawers….counting it was time consuming; sometimes it didn’t get done right away. When the banks weren’t open, we just closed off a room and put the none-too-neat piles of money in it. By the end of the weekend, you’d open a door and walk into a sea of money.”
Don Sloan, M.D. and Paula Hartz. Choice: A Doctor’s Experience with the Abortion Dilemma. New York: International Publishers 2002 p 44
A mental health professional who has worked with former abortionists says this of their reasons for getting involved in the business:
"When we attempted to find out what got people into the abortion industry, they said it was the power and the money that attracted them. The power was power over life and death."
From The Washington Times "Former Abortion Provider's Seek Peace After Quitting" February 23, 2001
At the clinic featured in Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996) clinic workers complain about the clinic's focus on profits.
The fact that money seemed to be the bottom line to the clinic administrators bothered many of the workers. On page 147 clinic worker Rae says:
“I think the fact that the Center is losing that primary focus on being a feminist [workplace] is because of the almighty dollar…It’s about business, and the Center doesn’t want to say that, and that’s what they [the administrators] should say…They shouldn’t say other things to contradict that because that’s what they’re about. And that’s why they have so much problems at the clinic….because they always make people feel like they have the space to say what they feel but please know that it won’t…make a difference.”
Michael S. Goldstein, public Health professor at University of California did a study of abortionists who made abortion their principal practice in the year's leading up to Roe Vs. Wade. Although this research is old, it shows what motivated many doctors to push for the legality of abortion:
¾ cited money as motivation – most as first and major motivation.
Some quotes:
“It was a bonanza, my prime- everyone’s prime motivation.”
“I’m a big spender, an entrepreneur…money is what I need most and this was the way to get it.”
“Everything I touched turned to gold.”
¼ money their sole motivation for doing abortions.
Some quotes from them:
“I never should have been a doctor. I’m not interested in medicine. I’m a businessman, always was, always will be.”
“Medicine has nothing to do with it. I’m an entrepreneur. If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else.”
“Table 2 summarizes” Goldstein, “Abortion as a Medical Career Choice” p 216"
Cynthia Gorney. Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars (Simon & Shuster: New York. 1998) (P 289-290)
The next few quotes are from RoeBots at Life Dynamics:
"People are making mega-bucks in it [abortion]."
Dr. Albert R. Brown, abortionist, LA Times "Handful of Clinics Put the Poor at Risk for the Record" April 5, 1998
Former employees of the Bread and Roses abortion clinic told the Feminist Voices
Journal that:
Employee Margaret, "The real philosophy is, each woman is worth X amount of
money, and the more women we can see the more money we can make. It was not,
'How did you treat the patients?' but "how fast did you draw their blood."
Employee Laura McEnaney, " We were told...get them in and get them out. I was
admonished for not going quick enough."
Several employees likened the clinic to " an assembly line" and a "7-11"
Employee Judy said Bread and Roses is an example of what an abortion clinic
should not be, "it just fuels the fire for pro-lifers and that worries me."
Two employees said they were trained to, " maximize the marketing potential."
Feminist Voices Madison Wisconsin. (A Madison area news journal) "Abortion clinic masks for-profit practice in feminist garb" October 1988
"She ( Deborah Struthers) won't release the sales and profits from her clinics, but with about a quarter of the state's 46 licensed abortion clinics, her centers have estimated revenues of about $ 5-million a year,” stated The St. Petersburg Times.
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) "Pressure changing abortion industry // Raging controversy leaves business to small operators" October 12, 1989
About abortionist Edward Allred:
"Make no mistake: abortion has been very good to Allred. After a two-year stint as an Army doctor, he began his private practice in 1967 with a "negative net worth." Today he owns several exclusive mansions, a fleet of expensive cars and jets, Rolling A Ranches in Nevada, and New Mexico's prestigious Ruidoso Downs racecourse, where slot-machine gambling is legal. In 1989, Allred parlayed his fortune into partial ownership of the $47 million Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress. February, the quarter-horse aficionado (he stables more than 400 of them) announced that he had bought out his last major partner to become sole owner of the lucrative racetrack, which takes in more than $1 million in bets daily," describes OC Weekly.
OC weekly "The Abortionist Who Funds Pro-Life Republicans" R. Scott Moxley June 24, 1998
The Associated Press made this their lead sentence in an article entitled "The
Business Is Abortion _ And It's a Big Business"
"Hector Zevallos' small-town Illinois business served 700 people in its first
year. Now his operation sees more than 4,300 customers annually, advertises in
the Yellow Pages and accepts major credit cards.
The business is abortion. And it's big business in America."
The Associated Press "The Business Is Abortion _ And It's a Big Business" January 17, 1983
"While few want to talk about the money those abortion doctors can make, clinic owners and doctors agree that doctors can make several hundred thousand dollars a year working part time, a few hours a day with their fees averaging $60 for a first-trimester abortion. Although they do have hefty fees for malpractice insurance, doctors who travel from clinic to clinic have no overhead and no record keeping."
NY Times: "As abortion rates decrease, clinics compete for patients" December 30, 2000
National Abortion Federation (NAF)
abortion provider lobbying group
NAF Institutional Members: Re: Membership Dues, 11-1-1991
(NAF) claims to be the umbrella organization for many abortion providers. A 1991, invoice to a NAF member revealed that they required each member to pay them $.75 (at that time) for each baby they aborted. In a world of millions of abortions that is a lot of change! $ !
New Hampshire Feminist Health Center
abortion clinic
The Associated Press,The Business Is Abortion _ And It's a Big
Business:1-17-1983
According to the Associated Press, "The New Hampshire Feminist Health Center, a non-profit clinic in Concord, performed only a dozen abortions a week when it opened in 1973. Now (1983) it manages 50 a week and the waiting list sometimes stretches to two weeks. The annual budget has climbed above $600,000 and there is a second branch in Portsmouth."
Planned
Parenthood
upscale Minnesota Facility
WCCO, Channel 4, Planned Parenthood Expands With Plush Clinic:
5-22-2006/ Mercury News, Planned Parenthood expands with plush, quick-service
clinic: 5-22-2006 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14636081.htm
The Associated
Press reported that,
"Planned Parenthood wants to expand its services to more areas, and the
organization's leaders hope a plush fast-service clinic coming to this
well-heeled St. Paul suburb next month will attract a new group of women who
value convenience and can afford to pay full price.
It could be to reproductive health care what companies like MinuteClinic and
RediClinic are to strep tests and ear infections. Planned Parenthood is a
nonprofit, but its leaders hope the new clinic will make enough money to help
subsidize the rest of its operations.
Sister affiliates in states including California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Iowa,
Ohio and Alabama have opened 87 express clinics in the last two years, and more
are in the works. But Sarah Stoesz, president and chief executive officer of
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said this one will
take the focus on the customer to a new level.
"Ours will have a very different look and feel," Stoesz said. "We're going to
the women where they spend their lives, to help them solve some of the problems
in their lives."
The clinic will not perform abortions. Instead, lotions, essential oils and
decorative carrying cases for pills and condoms will beckon shoppers inside,
where they can also get oral contraceptives, pregnancy tests and screening for
HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhea - all in about 20 minutes. If customers are
interested, the clinic may add massages and other spa services later,
spokeswoman Marta Coursey said."
The article did point out that, these upper end Planned Parenthood clinics,"
won't take patients on subsidized health plans if they can't pay out of pocket.
The Woodbury clinic is designed to be a cut above even the nicest Planned
Parenthood express clinics."
Planned Parenthood
abortion clinic chain
US Newswire, American Life League: Planned Parenthood Swimming in
Record Profits While Tax Dollars Siphoned from Worthy Programs: 6-5-2006
Newly released data reveals that for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood had a record income of $882 million dollars and a profit of $63 million, the second highest the organization has ever reported in a single year. Planned Parenthood also set new standards for the number of abortions in a single year (255,015) and for its ratio of abortions to adoption referrals (180 to 1).Since 1987, Planned Parenthood has now received a total of $3.9 billion in taxpayers' money. Earlier this year, American Life League began an online petition campaign to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood through its Stop PP Tax Funding website- http://www.StopPlannedParenthoodTaxFunding.com
Renee Chelian
abortion clinic administrator
Washington Times: Abortion fare wars, 1-3-2001/ Portions of the
above quotes are also repeated in, NY Times, As Abortion Rate Decreases, Clinics
Compete for Patients:12-30-2000
The
Washington Times reported that Renee Chelian, runs three abortion clinics in the
Detroit suburbs. They stated that, "In an effort to draw patients, Ms. Chelian
now offers a "spa-like atmosphere at her offices, with low light in her rooms,
aroma therapy, candles and relaxing music." Anything to be competitive in the
tight Detroit market, where two dozen clinics (plus nine more within a two-hour
drive of the city) struggle to stay in business."
"As altruistic as women and feminists want to be, the reality is that we can
only stay in business if we earn enough to keep our door open," she says.
What Ms. Chelian calls altruism would seem to have its limits.
It's not easy being an entrepreneur, but there's something mind-bendingly
perverse about these bland, matter-of-fact dissections of the bottom line in the
abortion industry — about offering mifepristone, the so-called abortion pill
formerly known as RU-486, as "a loss leader." About mergers to offset the
decline in women seeking to terminate their pregnancies; about the problems
independent clinic owners have with Planned Parenthood clinics and their
bargain-basement price scale.
Renee Chelian
abortion clinic administrator
NY Times, As Abortion Rate Decreases, Clinics Compete for
Patients:12-30-2000
The New York Times reported that the cost of offering three abortion pills plus lab work would drive up the cost of abortions. The dilemma was that many women were requesting the pills. They stated that abortion clinic administrator, Renee Chelian said that she is considering offering women just one pill (RU-486) instead of three and to have them sign a form saying they understand that one pill is not the approved dose but that studies have shown that one pill is effective. Then she can charge them just $80 more than for a surgical abortion.
Robert Crist
abortionist membership organization
St. Petersburg Times, "A chain of tears:' a doctor and
abortion:6-3-1990
"Abortion has been good to me." The paper points out that he lives with his wife and young son in a big house, drives a nice car, and is financially secure.
Ted Weiselberg
Co-owner Parkmed Eastern Women's Center
Kaiser, Daily Women's Health Policy, Competition Among Abortion
Clinics Intense as Abortion Rate Decreases:1-3-2001
"It's like any other service, you have to lower your fee to attract enough patients to allow the office to pay its rent and you have to diversify to be successful."
Tom Tvedten
abortionist
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR),4 abortion providers
in state refuse to let threats dictate practices Doctors face peril, continue
work Physicians perform procedure despite decades of violent opposition:
3-27-2001
Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette reported that abortionist Tom Tvedten says that while very few
younger physicians are becoming abortion providers, he doesn't worry about when
his generation retires.
Tvedten told the paper that, "Managed care is such a bad system, many physicians
will get fed up with it," he said. "This is a cash business, and doctors can
make as much doing this as in family practice." Tvedten added, "I just don't
think there's ever going to be a shortage of providers."
Tommy Tucker
abortionist
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Abortion doctor says it's
the cause, and the cash that keeps him driving: 5-16-1993
Abortionist
Tommy Tucker opened his own Birmingham clinic, four years prior to speaking with
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The paper reported that Tucker spends
thousands of dollars lobbying the Alabama Legislature and fighting abortion
restrictions in Mississippi, the only state with a 24- hour waiting period for
women seeking the procedure. 'We think we help people'
"It started out as a financial thing," Tucker told the paper, "But I got heavy
into the [abortion rights] movement and realized there was a lot of need for
physicians. We're trying to make the people that are here on the earth have a
better chance at success in life. We think we help a lot of people."
The article describes Tucker as a person who considers himself as much a
capitalist as a crusader and says he makes about $ 200,000 a year, which he says
is low for obstetricians. He hopes income from all six clinics will eventually
push his annual income to $ 700,000.
Tucker described himself to the paper as having "a tremendous ego but being
tremendously insecure," and he says much of that insecurity is rooted in fear of
financial ruin.
"My income will go up, but I earn it," Tucker stated. "I work hard for what I
do, and I'm proud of what I do."
Tucker was later prosecuted for the death of a woman he aborted. Joy Davis worked with him, see her testimony here.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ,Abortion business is profitable:
5-11-1997
Associate Editor Meredith Oakley's column entitled: Abortion business is profitable states, "Abortion, you see, is something of a cash cow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the facility against which abortion opponents filed a lawsuit in 1991 on the ground that UAMS was violating the amended Arkansas Constitution by performing abortions for reasons other than to save mothers' lives. According to testimony by Dr. Harry Ward, the UAMS chancellor, the abortion program is self-supporting. Indeed, thanks to the exorbitant rates imposed on the paying customers, the UAMS abortion program generates enough profit to cover the debts of the non-paying customers. Consider last week's (State Court opinion, on funding of abortion with tax dollars) : "It appears that the charges billed by UAMS far exceed costs, since full-pay patients cover the costs of those patients who do not pay." The opinion noted that UAMS charged $ 2,500 for an abortion through June 1, 1992, but later raised the charge to $ 4,000. Not only is the state still in the abortion business, it's doing very, very well."
Uta Landy
1983 executive director of the National Abortion Federation
The Associated Press,The Business Is Abortion _ And It's a Big
Business:1-17-1983
In an AP story
entitled : The Business Is Abortion _ And It's a Big Business, 1983 National
Abortion Federation (NAF) director, Uta Landy defended abortion profits with
this comment,
Abortion "certainly is profitable and the astonishing thing is that it remains
extremely cost effective compared to other medical procedures."
She went on
to state,
"Making money is not the bad thing. What is bad is if the patient is being
exploited, and I think abortion providers have proven they are dedicated people,
concerned with delivering a safe and convenient service."
Warren Hern
abortionist
NY Times, As Abortion Rate Decreases, Clinics Compete for
Patients:12-30-2000
"The fees are not set by the cost of the services but by the cost of the competition, the competition for patients is absolutely ruthless."
Washington Post
media
Washington Post, The Ex-Abortionists; They have confronted the
reality:4-1-1988
"Many doctors, nurses and counselors still work in abortion clinics. Some are there for the money, which is substantial for the doctors (up to $ 500 per hour). Others genuinely believe they are saving women from back-alley abortions."
William Ramos
abortionist
Kaiser: Daily Women's Health Policy, Competition Among Abortion
Clinics Intense as Abortion Rate Decreases :1-3-2001/NY Times, As Abortion Rate
Decreases, Clinics Compete for Patients:12-30-2000 http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_repro_recent_reports.cfm?dr_cat=2&show=yes&dr_DateTime=01-03-01#1993
"Anything that's not managed care is exquisitely popular."
William Ramos
abortionist
NY Times, As Abortion Rate Decreases, Clinics Compete for
Patients:12-30-2000
Dr. Ramos said the situation at his abortion clinic in Las Vegas is close to ideal. There are no protesters. Business is good -- he does about 3,000 abortions a year, charging $300 for a first-trimester abortion. And with four clinics in the city, everyone is getting by. Dr. Ramos says he made the perfect career choice when he began doing abortions nearly three decades ago. "There is less work and more income," he explained.
William Ramos
abortionist
Washington Times: Abortion fare wars, 1-3-2001
"I find this - performing abortions - to be a very rewarding practice, emotionally and financially."
William Ramos
abortionist
NY Times, As Abortion Rate Decreases, Clinics Compete for
Patients:12-30-2000
The Times reported that abortionist William Ramos said that abortion clinics were not so different from other specialty services. Ramos who performs abortions in Nevada made this comparison, "In the entire state of Nevada, there is only one Lexus dealer and only one Acura dealer."
William Rashbaum
abortionist, NY city
The Boston Phoenix: Cruel to be kind, In the twilight of his
career, a late-term-abortion doctor tells all , Issue Date: December 5 - 11,
2003 http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multipage/documents/03376466.asp
"In
an interview printed in the Boston Phoenix, it stated that abortion doctor
William Rashbaum began performing abortions in New York City, which had quickly
become the abortion capital of the country. The clinic where he worked was open
round the clock, with three sets of doctors and nurses each taking eight-hour
shifts.
Rashbaum described working in a high volume abortion mill as a place where, "You
would go home with a go*damn barrel of money."
William West
abortion clinic employee
Kaiser: Daily Women's Health Policy, Competition Among Abortion
Clinics Intense as Abortion Rate Decreases :1-3-2001/NY Times, As Abortion Rate
Decreases, Clinics Compete for Patients:12-30-2000/ http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_repro_recent_reports.cfm?dr_cat=2&show=yes&dr_DateTime=01-03-01#1993
"I would
sort of compare them (Planned Parenthood) to Wal-Mart coming in and taking over
from all the mom and pops."
Kaiser: Daily Women's Health Policy reported that William West likened Planned
Parenthood Federation (PPF) clinics to "Wal-Mart coming in and taking over from
all the mom and pops," Dr. William West, who works at an abortion clinic in
Dallas, said that the PPF clinics can "easily undercut" for-profit clinics.