‘It was twins’: Former Planned Parenthood employees describe witnessing abortions in new videos

Two new videos released by the pro-life group Live Action on Tuesday share the stories of former Planned Parenthood employees and their experiences witnessing abortion procedures.

In the videos, the latest in Live Action’s “Abortion Corporation” series, Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood manager in Iowa, and Marianne Anderson, a former Planned Parenthood nurse in Indiana, detailed what they witnessed in their clinics. Both women have been featured in previous Live Action videos.

In one video, Thayer said that during her training, she witnessed multiple abortions — and their aftermath. She said that clinic staff told her that most trainees “pass out” the first time they witness an abortion, but she didn’t.

“The whole procedure only takes just three or four minutes,” Thayer said.

After an abortion is complete, she said, what staff refer to as the “products of conception” are taken into a laboratory to make sure all the fetal body parts are accounted for and that the abortion was complete.

She said that after one abortion, she realized there were three arms in the lab.

“I remember standing there looking at that, and I said, ‘Why are there three arms?’ You know, and we’re looking, and the gal training me said, ‘Twins – it was twins.’ And I said, you know, ‘Do you tell the mom that she had twins?’ And she says, ‘No, it usually just upsets them,’ ” Thayer said.

Thayer said that the remains were flushed down a sink.

“I just remember standing there thinking, ‘All these babies are in the Des Moines sewer system,’ ” she said.

During her time at Planned Parenthood, she said, remains were eventually placed in bags in a freezer.

“I remember kind of thinking, ‘I wonder what they’re doing with those? Because if there’s a buck to be made, they will sell those,’ ” Thayer said.

In another video, Anderson said that abortionists often spoke callously about what they were doing.

“Sometimes I just couldn’t take it,” she said, adding she would sometimes invent errands or go get supplies “just to step out of there for a little while.”

Anderson added that one doctor would even speak to aborted fetal remains:

He would sometimes talk to [the remains], saying — I’ll never forget him saying, "Now, where’s your little arm? I didn’t see – I’m missing this arm." And he would sift through it, trying to find the pieces, make sure he had everything. And then he’d say — I remember him saying, "Oh, there you are! Now, where’s the head and where’s this?"

She said another doctor “really seemed to kind of get into” reassembling the fetal body parts after an abortion.

“He — I’ll never forget the first day he was there — and he goes, ‘Look at this — this is so cool!’ ” she said.

Lila Rose, the founder and president of Live Action, said in a statement that “the testimonials of these former abortion workers are so powerful.”

“The stories of the death they witnessed on a daily basis and of the barbaric procedures they saw committed on preborn children must be heard — especially by those who support abortion without understanding how brutal and inhumane it truly is,” Rose said.

Rose added that “the science is clear: these preborn children are growing, developing human beings who have beating hearts at just three and a half weeks old.”

“Taking their lives is the opposite of health care,” she continued. “Despite the lies they tell their clients, Planned Parenthood knows they aren’t aborting clumps of cells, but innocent little human beings.”