Is the doctor who regularly performs abortions doing so only for saintly ideological reasons or is there a profit motive involved? Of course it differs from doctor to doctor, but in general it seems that some level of concern for profit is involved.
Statistics show that about 97% of women who have had abortions regret their abortions. That being the case, a doctor who only wanted to serve women would counsel most women away from abortions, and the typical clinic which performs abortions would be far more concerned with issues such as finding adoptive homes for babies and helping poor women apply for welfare benefits to keep their babies. I have yet to read of a clinic which fits this profile. Most women who go into an abortion-performing clinic thinking about an abortion have one.
Another statistic is that about 60% of women who have had abortions didn't want those abortions, but were coerced by a family member, boyfriend or husband. Doctors who were concerned about this possibility would set up protocols- such as having friendly nurses interview the patient away from family members and offer them choices other than abortion- to prevent this possibility. Yet reports by women who have had abortion don't seem to mention this concern on the part of clinic staff.
Most doctors who are pro-choice don't become abortion providers. Many of those that do don't stay with it for long. It is hard work, particularly in second and third trimester abortions. Most abortion methods require the doctor to take the fetus out in pieces. Doing so later in pregnancy is hard on the doctor both physically and mentally.
The presence of anti-abortion protesters may also cause a doctor to stop performing abortions. I'm not talking just about the few criminal misfits who have attacked or killed abortion doctors. Most of these doctors, regardless of what you think of their morals in performing abortions, are men and women of courage and would not be scared off that way. But many anti-abortion protesters are not like the ones you see in television shows. They show up regularly, they pray, they engage in sidewalk counselling of women before and after abortions, and many make a sincere effort to befriend the workers in the clinic. When you go to work every day and see a group of people including priests and nuns praying the rosary that you will stop doing your job, it makes you stop and think.
Some of the doctors who work performing abortions are recruited from the ranks of those doctors having trouble in their professions. In a number of cases doctors who have had their hospital privileges revoked for alleged misdeeds have found themselves working at an abortion clinic temporarily to make ends meet.
One doctor of unusual frankness, it is said, told an inquirer he could make more money in an afternoon of performing abortions than in a week of delivering babies. This kind of open and naked profit motive is rare. Most abortion doctors do believe abortions help women at least in some cases. But I think a realistic assessment of the motives of these doctors shows that profit also plays a role.