Environmentally Unfriendly (Definition Essay)

While many have never been in an abortion clinic before, it is very important to know what the setting is like in order to get a better picture of what women go through when they consider undergoing an abortion. The panorama, the din, the aroma, the ambiance, as well as the levels of comfort in the waiting room are all exceptionally essential aspects to be educated on. Even though waiting rooms are meant to be a place where people can wait in comfort and in security, abortion clinic waiting rooms tend to provide just the opposite service. Abortion clinic waiting rooms are very unpleasant environments to be in.

The visual atmosphere of abortion clinic waiting rooms can be intimidating. The waiting room is more depressing than a morgue. The walls are white, and the chairs are white. Everything seems to be really white in those waiting rooms. The white walls can be almost luminescent and blinding. There are hardly any decorations or pictures on the walls aside from a clock and, perhaps, a “stages of pregnancy” chart that hangs on the wall, or even a simple modern art painting that, perhaps, has red, blue, and yellow dots and lines splashed across its canvas. The front desk is wooden and plain. Nothing but a stack of papers, a yellow mug that still has the remains of coffee in it, and an old, white ’99 Microsoft computer sits on her desk. A glass window, covered in fingerprints, shields the desk clerk’s world from the world of the waiting room. The clerk, herself, is reasonably pleasant, but her teeth are crooked as she looks up and forces a fake smile on her face. After asking a few questions and handing over a document or two to sign, she desk clerk will usher the patients to a seat somewhere in the room. If one were to look around, once seated, one would see that some of the women’s faces are akin to that of abandoned, forlorn puppies. Some of the women look like they might have been through this whole thing before as they flip through their fashion magazines nonchalantly. Other women have, evidently, never done this sort of thing before, and so some look around anxiously, some resort to biting their nails nervously, some do everything they can to keep the tears from flowing, and the rest sit in stone cold silence, gazing far off into another world, feigning indifference. It’s heartbreaking to see these girls in so much pain.

The silence can be deafening as one waits in the abortion clinic waiting rooms. The general lack of conversation among the men and women who are waiting to be seen by the doctors can be pretty unnerving. An occasional, whispered conversation might be faintly audible as a mother attempts to encourage her daughter. The second-hand of the clock tiptoes softly around the face of the clock. The chewing of gum is inaudible as a few of the impatient girls chew, the only thing that gives it away is the jaw moving in a clock-wise fashion, like that of a cow’s. The occasional tapping of a foot every now and then is heard, and the door squeaks as it opens every time someone comes in to the clinic. The distant rumble of a car’s engine is barely perceived and the uncommon honk of an angry driver is heard. One might heed the muffled tapping of keys on a keyboard as the desk clerk undoubtedly checks her Facebook profile while pretending to work. Other than these few, soft notes of sound, a waiting room is generally an intimidating, silent place to be.

The smell can be rather nauseating. The overpowering scent of disinfectant is strong enough to knock a visitor off of his or her feet! It fills the senses enough to make one want to get sick. After a short time, the stomach may begin to rumble due to the smell. To say one feels queasy in an abortion clinic waiting room would be an understatement.

The waiting room’s scent is so potent it can even be tasted. One can taste the bitter, disgusting disinfectant as it bathes on his or her tongue. It almost feels like is does when one accidentally gets shampoo in his or her mouth, or when one’s perfume is inadvertently sprayed on one’s tongue. It’s nearly impossible to erase the taste! No amount of toothpaste will cure the damaging imagery that is permanently stuck in one’s head after the awful experience.

The seating arrangement makes the experience of waiting in the abortion clinic waiting rooms almost unbearable. The chairs are incredibly uncomfortable, and, even if one isn’t there to see a doctor or medical advisor, it’s easy to empathise with the girls who are waiting in intense anticipation, anxious, uncomfortable, and frightened. The chairs are made of plastic, and they squeak each time one tries to readjust the way he or she is sitting. They are placed very closely together, making the ideal of personal space impractical.

Abortion clinic waiting rooms are horrible places to be situated in. Knowing what these girls go through, just to see a doctor, can be really distressing for an onlooker. It’s hard to understand why the managers of these establishments don’t even try to make their patrons relaxed and at ease. If the managers just put a little effort into making the waiting rooms a little more pleasant, maybe the girls wouldn’t be as nervous or as terrified as they are. On that note, however, I think that this just shows that these doctors, for the most part, don’t really care about the women sitting in the clinic’s waiting rooms, their chief concern is on how much business they are attaining! Abortion clinics are impersonal, painfully repulsive, and should be avoided. Women, who consider undergoing an abortion, should take the uncaring nature of a clinic’s waiting room into perspective. If the obviously cruel atmosphere of an abortion clinic waiting room is not enough of a clue to women that their doctors don’t care, it’s hard to say what would be.