As a mother of five children in three different schools, Kiah works hard daily to provide a stable environment for her children. While she and her husband work during the day, Kiah also serves as her family’s primary caregiver and homework helper. She takes this job seriously because she knows how challenging an unstable environment can be for a family.
“My parents were divorced, and I lived with my mom until high school,” Kiah recalled. “We moved around a lot. Pretty much every year, we were in a new house and new school. That was challenging.”
As she entered high school, Kiah went to live with her dad. She lived in the same house and attended the same high school for all four years. She even got involved in her church.
“When I was in high school, we went to church every Sunday. I went to church camp in elementary and middle school and participated in church plays in middle and high school,” Kiah remembered. “Our faith was pretty basic. We prayed before each meal and listened to Christian music. We even used a children’s book of God’s promises where we would read a story, and then I signed it with my dad—like a contract at the end of the story.”
Growing up as a Christian, Kiah always believed that abortion was wrong, but she never wanted to come off as judgmental. While it was not a topic that was discussed at home, Kiah did learn about how abortion is a sin by watching a video at church when she was a freshman in high school.
“I think they showed us a generic prolife video and talked about why abortion was a sin. That was about it,” she said.
After high school, Kiah got pregnant at the age of 19. Then, around 2013, she met her now-husband. While he had a job, they still needed money to support their family. Kiah had completed a program at her community college called “Pathways to Success.” Through that program, she received a “medical office administration” certification.
With her child now four years old, Kiah began looking for jobs but ran into some roadblocks.
“Even though I had a certification, most people don’t want to hire you without experience. I eventually came across a job listing for Family Reproductive Health. They invited me to come in for an interview to see how it is and what they do. At the time, I was just trying to get the work experience I needed,” Kiah explained.
Kiah was hired at the abortion clinic in 2015 as a front desk person and receptionist. Her job was to make appointments on the phone, check in patients, review their paperwork, and take partial payments. But it didn’t take her long to realize that something was off.
“When I first got hired, we had a manager who had been at the abortion clinic for about 20 years. She was a registered nurse and was very careful to follow proper protocols,” Kiah recalled. “But about a year after I was hired, this manager got a new job. That’s when the owner came in to run things, and everyone thought she was crazy. We started doing things that went against my training.”
That owner was Deborah (Deb) Walsh, and it wasn’t just Kiah who was asked to do things differently at the front desk. Deb wanted every staff member at the abortion clinic to be trained to do everything. But that was just one part of the growing wave of problems and malpractice at Family Reproductive Health.
While Deb had once been a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), her license expired in 2015, and she was no longer current on proper medical training. She tried asking a few other nurses to take the LPN exam to regain her license, but they refused. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Deb from misrepresenting herself as a nurse.
“After her license expired, Deb would still do the 72-hour counseling, but she wouldn’t call these women who were seeking an abortion. She would take a picture of the 72-hour form and text it to them,” Kiah said.
Deb’s misrepresentation of herself as a nurse was extremely problematic and put patients in harm’s way. In one particular circumstance, Kiah recalled a Spanish patient coming to the clinic for a medication abortion.
“This girl was a minor and had a lot of complications after taking the abortion pills. She began texting the nurse line a lot, and Deb responded to her by using Google Translate. The girl had been suffering from a lot of pain and a lot of bleeding. Deb eventually told her to go to the hospital. I’m not sure what happened to that girl, but I hope she’s okay now,” Kiah shared.
For Kiah and the rest of the staff at the abortion clinic, it became clear that, as the owner of this business, Deb did not want to lose out on abortion revenue. Their sign said that they did abortions up to 14.6 weeks gestation, but Deb would push past that limit if she could.
“If she was the one doing an ultrasound, she would place the measurements in the wrong spot so that the doctor would see the patient,” Kiah explained. “Then, the doctor would see the patient and afterward would realize that the baby was more than 14 weeks.”
Deb would also schedule patients at any time of day to make more money or meet some kind of goal. The clinic would perform abortions on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with an estimated 10 to 20 abortions in an average day. For $460 per abortion that was up to 11 weeks, a $70 increase for each week after that, and $525 for the abortion pill at eight weeks or less, Deb stood to lose a lot of money if she didn’t have patients coming in the door. She also proved that she was willing to do whatever it took to protect her bottom line, even when short-staffed.
“There were times when we didn’t have enough staff, and Deb would try to work with just herself, a nurse, and maybe one other person. If she didn’t have another person, it would just be herself and a nurse. And then eventually, she started pulling in our clinic escorts to try to help out.”
Clinic escorts are often volunteers who help patients get into and out of abortion clinics. Deb showed that she was willing to go so far as to bring these people off the streets to help with abortions.
Nothing seemed to be off limits for Deb, even the possibility of facilitating underage abortions or for women in sex trafficking situations. When an underage patient comes into an abortion clinic, they are supposed to have a parent with them, along with a birth certificate or some kind of identification showing that they are the parent or guardian. If they don’t have that, they are supposed to have a judicial bypass. But Deb didn’t always follow this procedure.
“It got to a point where Deb would talk to these young girls on the phone or talk to a ‘guardian,’ and she would say that it was okay for the girl to be seen. But these ‘guardians’ didn’t have anything showing that the girl belonged to them.”
Underage abortions, sex trafficking, and pushing past the gestational limit are bad enough, but eventually, things around the abortion clinic got weird with Deb. Not only was Deb living there, but she often slept on the premises during the day with a shotgun and would sometimes wake up disoriented.
“Deb lived in the clinic, and the fire marshal came to the clinic and told her that she can’t live there because it’s a business. But often she had groceries delivered and laundry delivered there,” Kiah remembered. “The owner had a house that was over an hour away and often decided to sleep in the clinic. She had an actual bed in there, not a fold-out couch, an actual bed. She had a TV mounted on the wall and a little griddle to cook food on. She would primarily stay up at night and then sleep during the day while we worked there. She basically took over one of the rooms at the clinic and made it her own—right beside the patient waiting area.”
Kiah continued, “Deb would wake up more toward the end of the day. She would often wake up confused and wonder why the staff wasn’t at work. But it was the end of the day. Everyone was already gone! I remember the first time she brought in the shotgun. She came in through the front door through the patient waiting area while everyone was still coming in. She told us that if patients asked about it, to tell them that the shotgun was for their safety and ours.”
Kiah worked at the abortion clinic for around five years—on and off. When she first left her job to be a stay-at-home mom, she got pulled back in. Because Kiah had been there so much, she had friends who got pushed into management positions, and they would call her asking for help. The job was easy, and she liked her co-workers, so she resumed working there. But one day, she finally had enough.
“It was the early part of COVID when only essential businesses were open. During that time of the quarantine, hospitals, grocery stores, and things like that were open. Deb tried to tell us that abortions were essential, but we all knew that they were not a medical necessity. As staff, we didn’t feel that abortions were essential.” Kiah explained. “So, many of us thought we shouldn’t come to work because of the quarantine. But we were told to come in because we are healthcare. So, we went in one day, and patients were asking certain questions about COVID and our procedures for safety. We tried to share our concerns with Deb, but she would tell us that we were essential workers. One of my co-workers got mad and walked out. And I decided that same day to finish and not come back. There were three of us who quit that day.”
Kiah soon got connected with And Then There Were None. One of her co-workers was the first to call, and she told Kiah and another co-worker to do the same.
“I’m not much of a talker, so I was nervous and didn’t know what to say. But my co-worker told me to call and just answer the questions, so I did,” Kiah said.
Kiah began finding new friendships with other Quitters and opportunities to heal.
“I thought that phone call was going to be a one-and-done conversation, but it has been so much more. I have ended up with a bunch of new best friends,” she shared.
“I was nervous about the retreats because I had to go by myself and fly by myself. But the first retreat was great,” Kiah continued. “It helped me to reflect on my time at the clinic because I don’t like to think about sad stuff. I try not to think about my time there. But to spend time thinking about it helped me start the healing process. I also liked that ATTWN doesn’t just care about our time at the clinic. They care about each of us Quitters as people. They don’t just see us as abortion workers.”
Since leaving the abortion industry and reaching out to ATTWN, Kiah has seen some significant progress toward growth and healing. She’s been able to focus on forgiving herself and asking God for forgiveness. She’s even seen growth in her marriage.
“I was talking with my husband about this and asked him if our life is different. And he said, ‘yes.’ Honestly, my husband and I had a really rocky marriage in the past. But it’s growing and getting better,” Kiah said. “He was an atheist when we met, but he started going to an old church that I went to when I was a child. And we recently found a new church that we’re both involved in and like going to.”
The couple and their family have also seen improvements in their lives and careers.
“We just moved into a new house last year and into a nicer area in our community. I am working for my dad now, and my husband has his own garage door company. So, we are definitely much better now,” Kiah shared.
But while celebrating her husband’s garage door company, Kiah has also been celebrating the closing of another business. In 2021, Kiah joined two co-workers to file a complaint against Deb with the North Carolina Board of Nursing. The board took no action against Deb, but the abortion clinic eventually closed anyway. Kiah believes it likely closed because Deb couldn’t hold onto staff.
Now, as she continues to seek peace and healing in her own life, Kiah recommends that all abortion workers reach out to ATTWN.
“Get out as soon as possible and call And Then There Were None. Reflecting and doing the different exercises will help you find the healing you need.”