Abby Sees the Light on Abortion

If an unborn baby is nothing more than a blob of tissue, why exactly can the baby be seen on an ultrasound struggling to avoid the instrument the abortionist "doctor" uses to end its life?

Ultrasound has truly become the biggest enemy of all to the pro-abortion crowd. There's nothing like viewing a tiny perfectly formed child to awaken a deceived individual to the truth that an abortion is the murder of an innocent and helpless life. Just as slavery was a moral stain on America in the1800s and earlier, abortion is the modern-day moral stain on this nation. How God grieves for the enormous loss of life!

Read from One News Now:

Unplanned awakening

"Like many young people, Abby Johnson just wanted to help people. Scanning the various volunteer organization booths set up at her college one day, she was drawn to the nice lady and the bright pink decorations at the Planned Parenthood booth. There she was told that the organization helps women who are facing a crisis, and that the Planned Parenthood clinics are important to women's safety.

That sounded good, but she hesitated over the issue of abortion. She knew Planned Parenthood provided abortions, and she had been raised in a Christian, pro-life home. She was assured, however, that Planned Parenthood's goal was to reduce the number of abortions by supplying birth control and information to women in need.

She was hooked. She'd found a place to serve and help others. Thus began her relationship with Planned Parenthood, starting as a volunteer and ending as director of a clinic in Texas.

Through a kind of perfect storm of events, Abby's beliefs were turned upside-down -- or perhaps right side up would more aptly describe it. These days she can often be found praying alongside the pro-life volunteers who used to pray for her outside the clinic she once ran. She tells her compelling story in the new book unPLANNED.

The main event in that perfect storm took place when Abby was asked to help with an ultrasound-guided abortion at her clinic. It was the first time she'd assisted in an abortion. She maneuvered the ultrasound probe until the 13-week-old fetus was clearly visible on the screen. She then watched as the cannula, inserted by the abortion doctor, appeared. Abby was already beginning to feel uncomfortable. She kept reminding herself of what she'd been taught: The fetus doesn't feel pain.


'The next movement was the sudden jerk of a tiny foot as the baby started kicking, as if trying to move away from the probing invader. As the cannula pressed in, the baby began struggling to turn and twist away. It seemed clear to me that the fetus could feel the cannula and did not like the feeling. And then the doctor's voice broke through, startling me. "Beam me up, Scotty," he said lightheartedly to the nurse. He was telling her to turn on the suction -- in an abortion the suction isn't turned on until the doctor feels he has the cannula in exactly the right place....[N]ow I could see the tiny body violently twisting with it. For the briefest moment it looked as if the baby were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then the little body crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then everything was gone.'


That was Abby's moment of truth. She knew she could no longer participate in abortions, or work for an organization that performed them.

That fateful event came on the heels of a directive from headquarters to increase revenue by stepping up the number of abortions at her clinic. That went against everything she'd believed about Planned Parenthood's goals.

The other critical event happening at the time was the '40 Days for Life' campaign, run by the Coalition for Life. Those were the local pro-life 'zealots' she saw day in and day out as she pulled into the parking lot at the clinic. This was a particularly intense time of prayer: for 40 days and 40 nights, at least two volunteers were outside the clinic fence praying at all times. (See related story)

Within days of witnessing the abortion on the ultrasound monitor, Abby resigned her position and fled straight into the arms of the Coalition for Life. In retrospect, Abby sees God's hand in the confluence of events that led, as she puts it, to the scales falling from her eyes.

She was literally embraced by the Coalition folks, those people who had never stopped praying for her, never stopped believing she might change her mind one day. Their demeanor toward Abby -- before and after her change of heart -- was one of compassion and caring. That stands in stark contrast to her former colleagues and friends at Planned Parenthood who now want nothing to do with her.

In an interview, I asked Abby how she accounted for that difference. 'A lot of what I've learned is that people in the pro-choice movement are constantly preaching about tolerance and acceptance, but they don't know the first thing about either. They talk about them, they have the ideas in their heads, but not in their hearts. I haven't experienced tolerance and acceptance from those at Planned Parenthood, but I have experienced it from people they would consider to be intolerant. It was the Coalition for Life people who were the ones loving me even when I was doing something they considered objectionable, and they were loving me when I finally came to the right side.'

The book took courage to write. Abby herself had two abortions before her change of heart. She notes that, ironically, one of Planned Parenthood's original selling points to her was that by providing birth control, they were reducing abortion rates. All three of Abby's pregnancies -- the two that ended in abortion, and the one that is now her daughter -- occurred despite the use of birth control.

Abby also raises the verboten topic of post-abortion guilt, writing that many of the women she counseled suffered guilt for years after having abortions.

'Choice' has become the idol our society worships, not only in discussions around abortions, but in all aspects of life. We want to choose whether to stay married, or get married, or have premarital sex, or abort our babies -- instead of obeying God's laws.

Abby told me that when she saw the image of the baby on the ultrasound monitor she thought, 'So that's "choice." But what I actually saw was the taking of a life.'"