LIFE DIGEST: Planned Parenthood director converts
- Nov 3, 2009 - 1
The director of a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Texas resigned and began praying alongside pro-lifers outside her former clinic after undergoing what she described as a “spiritual conversion.”
Abby Johnson, 29, turned in her resignation Oct. 6 after working for eight years at the Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas.
Also in this edition: 40 Days of Life reports more than 540 babies saved and Nightlight Adoptions begins scholarship fund.
She had a “change of heart” after observing an abortion by means of an ultrasound machine in September, Johnson told Fox News. She saw the unborn child “crumple” as he was vacuumed from the mother’s womb.
“I just thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought, ‘That’s it,’” Johnson told KBTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Bryan. She told Fox, “I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart . . . a spiritual conversion.”
Johnson already had become disillusioned with her job, saying her regional supervisor had urged her in recent months to find ways to increase profits by producing more abortions, she told Fox.
“Every meeting that we had was, ‘We don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough money – we’ve got to keep these abortions coming,’” Johnson said, according to Fox.
For Planned Parenthood, “there’s not a lot of money in education,” she said. “There’s not as much money in family planning as there is abortion.”
Planned Parenthood is the country’s leading abortion provider. Its affiliates performed more than 305,000 abortions in 2007, the latest year for which statistics are available..
After leaving her job, Johnson began meeting with Shawn Carney, executive director of Coalition for Life, a pro-life organization with an office near Planned Parenthood’s facility. She has participated with Coalition for Life volunteers in prayer vigils outside Planned Parenthood, including during the recently completed 40 Days for Life campaign.
“Abby’s amazing conversion demonstrates the importance of a constant, persistent, peaceful prayer presence in front of abortion facilities,” said David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life.
Beginning with the first 40 Days for Life campaign at the Bryan Planned Parenthood in 2004, “we’ve prayed for Abby — and for all abortion workers — that they would come to see what abortion really is, and that they would leave the deadly business,” Bereit said in his Nov. 3 email report. “In this case, those prayers have been answered.
“We are so proud of Abby’s courage to leave the abortion industry and publicly announce her reasons for leaving.”
40 Days of Life reports more than 540 babies saved
The 40 Days for Life campaign completed Nov. 1 recorded 542 unborn children saved and eight abortion clinic workers who left the business.
The initiative, which began locally in Bryan, Texas, in 2004, surpassed 2,000 unborn babies saved in the waning days of this fall’s effort, national director David Bereit reported.
The 40 Days for Life effort involves peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood offices, as well as fasting for the end of abortion. The latest campaign was expected to involve tens of thousands of people in 212 cities in the United States, Canada and Denmark.
In his Oct. 29 email report, Bereit shared about a mother and baby who were spared from abortion:
“It was a stormy day at the 40 Days for Life vigil in Bakersfield, California. Yet people ignored the wind and rain as they stood and prayed outside the abortion center.
“A young woman from outside the Bakersfield area soon arrived at the clinic for an abortion appointment. She was already stressed out; the drive across the mountains and through the storm left her in no mood to listen to the Christians on the sidewalk.
“She looked at the group, shouted profanities, and told the vigil participants to leave her alone. One of the people on the sidewalk told her that if she thought the sky was dark, it was nothing compared to the darkness abortion could bring into her life.
“She ignored the words and walked in.
“But the ‘simple procedure’ she had come for turned out not to be so simple — and she might not be able to have the abortion that day. She had come for the abortion pill, but the staff said she lived too far away to return to the clinic if any complications developed.
“When she learned that, she became even angrier at the people praying out on the sidewalk — she even went back out to yell at them several times. Finally, after she realized there would be no abortion, she gave up and left the clinic.
“But on her way out, the prayer supporters on the sidewalk offered to pray with her. As they did, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and the sky instantly became bright.
“It was like a new day.
“The vigil participants explained the situation to Terri, one of the counselors, who helped arrange an appointment for an ultrasound at the pro-life pregnancy help center.
“Terri could tell that the ultrasound had a significant impact on the young woman. ‘I knew that it was a good sign when I heard her talking to her baby,’ she said.
“After the ultrasound, Terri and the woman hurried back to the vigil site. Bursting with joy, the woman showed the prayer supporters the ultrasound picture of the baby she had intended to abort, exclaiming ‘your Jesus heard your prayers!’”
Nightlight Adoptions begins scholarship fund
Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which has become known for its Snowflakes frozen embryo adoption program, now has a scholarship fund for prospective parents.
Nightlight has established a $50,000 scholarship fund for couples who would like to adopt but lack the finances to do so, the agency announced Oct. 28. The fund was started in honor of Nightlight’s 50th anniversary. The agency expects to seek donations to the fund next year.
Couples will be eligible for scholarships of between $2,000 and $5,000 for domestic, international and embryo adoptions, based on their needs and the children they seek to adopt, said Kathryn Deiters, Nightlight’s director of administration, in a written release. “Eligible children will include special needs children, children over 10 years of age and other children for whom there are fewer waiting adopting parents.”
Interested couples may gain more information by emailing Deiters at Kathryn@Nightlight.org or calling her at (714) 693-5437.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing bulletin inserts or other materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Infertility, Citizenship, Science, Bioethics
comments (post your own) feed
1 On Nov 5th, 2009, at 11:13am, Ruby Brown wrote:
This is a heart warming story of the conversion of a health care worker clearly demonstrates how GOD can change the heart of innocent people and awaken them to the joys of seeing a new life in the womb via ultrasound. So many innocent girls and women have been mislead into believing that abortion is just a simple medical procedure without any long-term emotional effects. May GOD bless all you who work to enlighten the hearts of those who work in the abortion industry as well as those who are considering such life changing decisions.