WACO, Texas -- A former abortion clinic owner presented a portrait of abortion clinics as "ruthless economic machines using abortion-and the young women who get them-for profit" in a speech to a crowd of more than 150 gathered in Barfield Drawing Room Tuesday night.
Carol Everett, a right-to-life author and spokeswoman, spoke about her experiences and her decision to dedicate her life to fighting the very institution that was once her livelihood.
"My desire to be a millionaire is the reason I'm here tonight," she said."Abortion is not about rights, or about choices, or about the woman. Abortion is a skillfully marketed product sold to a scared young woman."
Everett said she and her co-workers taught safe-sex education and distributed free, low-efficiency birth control pills in a calculated move to increase teenage pregnancies and thus increase demand for abortions, which her clinics would perform at a minimum cost of $250 each.
"My goal was 3-5 abortions per girl between the ages of 13 and 18," she said. "I planned to perform 40,000 abortions in 1983."
But then God-with the aid of a CBS undercover news crew-suddenly entered her life and changed it forever. Everett said a preacher encouraged her to pray. "So I did, and I laughed all the way back to the clinic...when I walked in the door of that clinic, the women were all huddled in a corner and crying." She found herself sending young women away to look for other alternatives, instead of profiting from them.
In addition, an undercover CBS news team exposed Everett's clinic for performing abortions on women who were not pregnant. Since then, she has been an outspoken supporter of the right-to-life.
Everett, who is on the Texas Dept. of Health abortion task force, also addressed the need to emphasize abstinence sex-education and regulation of abortion facilities.
"Since women continue to use abortion, you and I have an obligation to make that as safe as possible for the woman," she said.
Everett's speech marked the 25th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision making abortion legal on demand. It was sponsored by Bears for Life, a right-to-life student group at Baylor University. Bears for Life formed in March 1997 and has expanded to include some 75 members.
"Previously, there had been no pro-life group here to represent all the students concerned for the sanctity of human life. We wanted to unify that movement," said Ridgewood, N.J., junior Michael FitzGerald, the president of Bears for Life. No pro-abortion organizations exist on campus.
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