Nancyjo Mann was scheduled to have a saline injection method of abortion, which was developed in Nazi concentration camps ("Abortion Methods" ). To start the abortion, Dr. Paulino Fong inserted a large needle into Nancyjo Mann's abdomen to withdraw 60 cc's of amniotic fluid, and then he replaced it with 200 cc's of saline solution. This process terrified Nancyjo and her six month old unborn baby. Her baby began thrashing about in her womb when the saline began to burn its skin, eyes, and throat, choking the baby and making it sick. The baby's wonderful little home had become an agonizing death trap from which it could not escape. While Nancyjo's baby was dying, she prayed for forgiveness. Nancyjo cried as she talked to her baby, telling it the pain would be over soon. To this day, Nancyjo can still feel the baby's last kick on her left side when, having no strength left, the baby gave up and died. Nancyjo was relieved her baby's pain was finally over, but she was never the same again. In killing her baby, Nancyjo also killed a part of herself. On October 31, 1974, at 5:30 a.m., Nancyjo delivered a baby girl who weighed a pound and a half, and was over a foot long with her legs extended. She had a head of hair, and her eyes had begun to open. She had tiny hands and feet, with fingernails and tiny swirls of fingerprints. She was a perfect, tiny human being, but the most striking feature of Nancyjo's daughter, who was twisted with agony, silent and still, was the fact she was dead (Reardon xiii-xvii).
Nancyjo Mann is only one of the over 43, 358, 592 women who have obtained an abortion since its legalization in 1973, and the number is still rising today ("Abortion in the United States" 1). With this number rising steadily everyday, it is imperative to look at the way abortion affects the women who receive them, and the future children they may have. Abortion causes child abuse, post abortion syndrome, and medical and psychological trauma; therefore, it should be banned except in the case of physical harm to the mother.
