We Do Abortions Here

        We are going to talk about the essay called We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Story by Sallie Tisdale. This essay is published in Harper’s in October of 1987.

Just to give you guys more information about the author, Sallie Tisdale has written 7 books as well as many essays that have appeared in publications such as Harper’s, Threepenny Review, and The New Yorker. She is a guest writer and a teacher at many institutions such as New York University, the Medill School of Journalism, and Reed College.

So moving on to the essay, Tisdale offers a new perspective on the concept of abortion as a point of view of a nurse. The essay describes her experience with abortion through the responsibilities defined by her job such as cleaning the bloody instruments, discarding of the “tissue,” and patient care. Tisdale writes from a pro-choice point of view but she also includes many lines that are corresponding to pro-life ideals. For example, at the end of the essay, she says “Done as well as it can be, it is still violence – merciful violence, like putting a suffering animal to death.” By saying “Done as well as it can be,” she demonstrates her pro-choice point of view while indicating a pro-life point of view by comparing abortion as a violence.

While she was cleaning up the mess of the operating room, she says “As I close the freezer door, I imagine a world where this won’t be necessary, and then return to the world where it is.”