I just read Unplanned and loved it!  This article is a great follow up and it made me look at the website for 40 Days of Life - I’m going to volunteer to pray outside the abortion clinic in my city!  Thanks for the motivation and great article!

What a treat and an inspiration - thank you Jennifer and Abby. What strikes me reading this, as it did when I read _Unplanned_ is that prayer for huge things requires a lot of work, but it can be so powerful. These ladies really give us something to live up to.

Excellent job, Elizabeth and Jennifer. I’m proud of both of you!

I really enjoyed reading this. it’s an encouraging read as well as a reminder to persevere and GET OUT THERE! But I was a little confused by this question… “Q: Around the same time as Abby’s conversion, you founded the Austin Coalition for Life, a pro-life organization in a city known for its support of abortion. How’s that going?” I’m assuming that the Austin Coalition for life is against abortion. Am I missing something here? Guessing it’s simply a typo of some sort but am wondering…

Susan—I think what that is saying is that AUSTin is a “city known for its support of abortion”—which makes it even more powerful to have a coalition there uniting pro-life groups.

I’d like to make a comment about the name calling of Planned Parenthood. It is NOT an abortion clinic. Some offices around the states offer that service, but not all. I’ve gone to PP for birth control many times and the percentage of PP’s abortion services is under 5%. It is not an abortion clinic and I’d like to point out how wrong it is to stand at a clinic and tell people they shouldn’t get a service they may want or need. Your beliefs are your own and you shouldn’t be trying to convert others with disgusting pictures of aborted fetuses or bible verses. I don’t exactly like abortion, either, but I respect a woman’s choice to do as she pleases with her own life and body. I would want that same respect if I wanted or needed to get an abortion or even if I wanted to do something else considered taboo, like tattooing my face with a giant skull or being a !@#$%. After all, you have the choice to believe in any god you wish and do as you wish with your life and body; can’t you give women the respect to do as they see is right with their lives? That’s all I’d like; for the pro-lifers to give women the respect they deserve. Even though they might be pregnant, they can still think for themselves and what is right to do. It might not be right to you, but my beliefs aren’t exactly right to you, yet I still have them, don’t I? Thank you for at least taking the time to read this, enjoy the rest of your day.

What a beautiful inspiring story! Thanks very much for writing it, Jennifer and thank you so much for being there in your loving, prayerful, and peaceful witness, Elizabeth! May God bless us all, pro-lifers and the abortionists. May God give us the grace and courage to stand up for life and in the process, may He convert countless souls and may innocent lives be saved!

I am just fininshing up reading Unplanned, what a powerful story.  Thank you Abby and Elizabeth for the work you are doing.  This will motivate me to become even more involved in the pro life movement.  Thank you and God Bless.

Susan -

“I was a little confused by this question… ‘Q: Around the same time as Abby’s conversion, you founded the Austin Coalition for Life, a pro-life organization in a city known for its support of abortion. How’s that going?’ I’m assuming that the Austin Coalition for life is against abortion.”

Sorry that wasn’t clear. Because Austin is a notoriously pro-choice city, I was remarking on the fact that it was quite an uphill endeavor for her to start a pro-life organization around here. And yes, the Austin Coalition for Life is a pro-life organization.

Thanks for your comment!

Fascinating!  So interested to hear about, and see the beautiful face of the “flower girl”. Thanks, Jennifer and Elizabeth.

My dear Rebecca - the fact that you equate abortion to getting a tattoo shows how far we have fallen these days…

I am an attorney and mom of 6 - in law school I thought just like you…

I BEG you to read Unplanned….

And I will pray…

Wow… she’s so beautiful! The same age as me… and she’s already done so much! Amazing.

Carla, thank you for your very wise comment on Rebecca’s comparison.  I also prayed as I read Rebecca’s words.  May she be encouraged as you were to search deeper into the Plan & Purpose God has for each of his creations, & come to realize the sacredness of Life, & why we “pro-lifers” are willing to take a stand for the unborn.
May our Lord abundantly bless you & your family.

Rebecca,  there’s just a small flaw in your argument.  Women who choose abortion are choosing to end someone else’s life.. dismember someone else’s body.  You have been deceived by the culture of death.  Although I haven’t read Abby Johnson’s book yet, I think it may shed a new light on this matter and help you see the truth.  God bless.

@Rebecca - My understanding is that Planned Parenthood’s services ratio for abortions is more like 20%+:

1)  The preventive (or non-abortion) services they perform are recorded at “face value.”  So, someone going in for 5 Preventive services (whatever they may be) is recorded as 5.  If someone going in for Abortion services (let’s say there are 5 in this case), PP would record them as 1 service.  Hence, the ratio is skewed in favor of non-abortion services.

2)  Abortions are performed during a minimal period of time each week, say once per week.  More skewing.

3)  Abortions are the main source of revenue and profit for PP.  Profits run approx. $1 Billion annually.

4)  Non-PP health centers provide more comprehensive and useful services than PP, without abortions.

5)  When someone chooses abortion, they are choosing to kill a child.  It’s a medical/scientific fact known well prior to the Roe decision. 

(I watched an interview between Abby and Raymond Arroyo on TV, and the PP info comes from there.  I guess it must be in her book, too.)  Thank you, Rebecca, for taking the time to post on this site.

Elizabeth discussed how long it takes to see an impact. I hadn’t thought of it in this connection before, but a couple of years ago, I read a biography of Wilber Wilberforce, who helped end slavery in the British. It took his entire life.

Rebecca, PP is the nation’s largest abortion provider, as a national organization.  Even though not all PP clinics provide surgical abortions, the organization IS an abortion clinic.  Take a look at the 2 graphs on the bottom of this page: http://exposeplannedparenthood.net/get-the-facts/planned-parenthood-your-tax-dollars/

You can’t argue that the majority of PP’s services are abortions.

Women deserve better than abortion - that is REAL respect for women!  Just read what Elizabeth is doing at Coalition for Life.  Read Unplanned.  You’ll be astonished at how much respect the pro-life movement treats women with, despite what you hear in the media & secular culture.

I personally believe that a fetus becomes a human being when it can live outside of a woman’s body.  That is MY belief.  I respect your right to believe that life starts at inception.  That is YOUR belief.  I truly wish that every woman with an “unplanned” or “unwanted” pregnancy would just carry their child and put it up for adoption.  There would be so many happy adoptive parents out there!  But that, again, is MY wish.  Not every woman wishes to do that.  And I respect that.  I believe that PP or any clinic should offer women the option of learning about adoption or where to get help in keeping their baby.  But in the end, it’s the woman’s choice.  I have no right to come into your house and tell you how to treat your living/breathing child.  I surely don’t feel that it’s my place to tell you how to treat your own body (or the embryo inside).  I respect pro-lifers that peacefully and respectfully pray or offer to help woman that are pregnant and confused.  But I strongly disagree with “crazies” who shout obscenities, slurs, threats, or hatered at these woman.  I don’t believe that they have a right to do it and it should be against the law.

Dear Kris, that’s an interesting way of thinking about it, and not an uncommon one, but it holds a few flawed statements at it’s core.  First, if you believe that a fetus becomes a human once it can live outside it’s mother’s body then you are constantly able to alter the definition of ‘human’.  Twenty years ago a baby born at, say, 26 weeks wouldn’t have survived, but these days premature babies can survive earlier and earlier.  Does this mean than in 1980 a 26 weeks old baby wasn’t human and now it is?  That doesn’t make sense to you, surely?  In fact, the only time at which genetic material from a man and a woman comes together is at conception.  Not even at implantation.  If you hold out for life being valid and valued only after an arbitrary amount of time has passed, then you are taking the burden of defining ‘human’ on yourself.  That is too heavy a burden, Kris.  Second, society most certainly *does* have a right to come into someone’s house if they are harming their child.  And they do that, thank goodness, or else many precious souls would be lost. 

And finally, I don’t think that every person who believes that abortion is the mother’s choice is a criminal.  I think they’re wrong, and I think they need prayer, but I don’t think they’re horrible, disgusting monsters for the most part.  And the same should go the other way, too.  Not every pro-lifer is a raving lunatic taking pictures of confused girls going into a PP clinic for the pill, or anything else.  Yes, some are, but if you tar everyone with the same brush you will only succeed in blinding yourself to the truth.  It’s really easy to hide behind your convictions; but I bet if you looked with open eyes at the other side you might see a different story.

Dear Kris,

That would mean many babies who are born before “their time” (i.e. prematurely) would not be with us, including my precious son, who has profoundly changed many lives due to his presence on this earth——whose life is of inestimable value and inherent worth that could not have been “measured” in the womb or at birth.  Should we then leave these preemies to die and not give them care?  They are not able to make it on their own without extraordinary measures, are not “viable”.  WHERE do we draw the line and how do we define lives worth sacrificing for?

Dear Rebecca,

There certainly are areas of life where people see the truth of a situation differently, and civilized people may agree to disagree and go along their separate paths. However, differences of opinion which strike at matters of life and death cannot be glossed over as a point of diversity.
At one point in our history, a whole race of people was thought of as less than human.  These people could be owned, bartered, bought, sold, brutalized, and killed with impunity because they were not considered to be equal to the rest of us.  We now know that that line of thinking was so wrong, and no one with a right-thinking conscience would have us go back to those days again.
We on the pro-life front know in our hearts that we are making the same mistake all over again in this matter of abortion.  How can it be that the value of the unborn baby is solely dependent on whether the mother desires to have it or not?  In many, many jurisdictions, an action by a third party that results in the death of an unborn baby is legally actionable, the law in many cases recognizing the personhood of the child.  But if the mother wants to abort the baby, it’s considered acceptable and her actions are lawful.  How does this dichotomy make sense?
Please research what happens in the womb from the moment of conception, and then ask yourself honestly if this marvel of creation is anything less than human.  Look at some pictures of human embryos and fetuses—what we in the pro-life movement call the preborn—and see if you can deny their humanity.
Yes, women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, until or unless those decisions result in the deaths of other innocent human beings.
May God bless you, Rebecca.  You’re not the enemy because you believe as you do.  Abortion is the enemy, and that is what we seek to end.

@Kris—medical science has proven that human life begins at conception.  The embryo, fetus, unborn baby—whatever term we choose to use—is not an elephant, a mouse, a monkey, an insect.  It is human.  At conception it has the complete genetic code for that individual, separate and distinct from the mother.  It happens to be living inside the mother, but it is not part of the mother’s body (consider that about half of all babies are male…)  From that point on, after conception, no genes are added or subtracted from the person.  All that is needed is time and a safe environment (the baby’s mother’s womb) to grow and develop.

To Liesl and others: she is even more radiant in person. -an Aggie friend of Elizabeth’s

Kris, I am a physician and a professor of anatomy and physiology. The scientific definition of life involves six characteristics. First there must be metabolism—a series of chemical reactions in support of life. Secondly there must be growth. Third there must be differentiation—different parts of the organism or even different organelles of a single cell must develop to perform specific functions. The fourth criteria is movement. This can be movement of the entire organism or movement of parts of the organism. The fifth criteria is responsiveness. This is not the same as consciousness. It means that the organism can detect changes in its environment and respond to these changes. Finally a living being must undergo reproduction. This can be the reproduction of the entire organism or of specific cells. Clearly, an embryo at conception meets all the objective scientific criteria of life. While the mother supports these functions with her womb, her body does not direct these functions. The embryo accomplishes these life functions independently. The only question to ask then is what kind of life is the embryo at conception. The only answer is human life. The genetic code is in place to define this life as fully human. So now the question is does this vulnerable human life deserve protection. To declare any class of humans as unworthy of protection makes all humans vulnerable. It gives the powerful authority to destroy the weak.

What an inspiring story!  Last fall I particiapted in 40 Days for Life, and I am volunteering again for Lent.  I think it is important to show a lovely, compassionate side to the Pro-Life movement, and Elizabeth certainly is a fine example of that.

While I strongly support the valuable work of the Austin Coalition for Life, it is regrettable that Elizabeth McClung is such a duplicitous glory hound.  It sickens me to see how this woman portrays such a sanctimonious image to the public, while belittling others behind closed doors.  She is not as saintly is she appears to be!

With regard to “Riley’s” comment, I offer my personal witness to the character of Elizabeth McClung.

Elizabeth is a compassionate, loving, and giving person. I can say this with 100% confidence because I work closely with her as part of the volunteer work I perform at the Austin Coalition for Life.

I have NEVER seen Elizabeth seek glory for any of the work of the Coalition. Perhaps someone is confusing the promotion of the work of the Austin Coalition for Life with self-promotion. Elizabeth is the director and consequently the face of the Coalition, so OF COURSE she is front and center in that role.

“Riley’s” comments infuriate me because I have seen Elizabeth work for months without pay to keep the Coalition running. She has put in an unimaginable number of hours keeping the Coalition afloat and praying on the sidewalks. She has spent as many as 20 hours in a week praying and counseling on the sidewalks. I doubt that many of us can say the same, myself included.

Elizabeth McClung is one of the finest people I know. She never claimed to be a saint. She’s just an ordinary girl trying to do a very extraordinary thing - save babies and women.

Riley - thanks for the post! I think that “glory hound” is a new one for me. It’s almost as good as the “publicity !@#$%” I once got.

I’ll keep you in my prayers!

Riley,  Elizabeth’s work is a blessing!  However, I think there is some real truth to your remarks.  I have heard it voiced by others.  Chalk it up to her youthful spirit.

Elizabeth McClung is a wonderful person. May we be united in the fight to end abortion.

I know Elizabeth’s family in South Central Texas, and they are all devoted Catholics. I met her at the last two Rallies for Life in Austin.

Elizabeth is a fine young woman, who with the grace of God, will be one of the pro-life leaders in Texas. We need more women like her. 

Abbey’s story just keeps getting better and better!

Thanks for this insightful blog.

Can’t wait to read the book.

I love that you interviewed Elizabeth after reading about her reaching out to Abbey Johnson in unPLANNED!  What a great way to highlight how seemingly simple gestures of love, acts of peaceful prayer, and kindness make such a huge impressioni in people’s lives…even those who are still on the other side of the fence.  Her example is a wonderful reminder for all who are involved in pro-life work that we never know what a simple act of kindness, prayer, or love will do to change someone’s heart, mind, and/or soul. Thank you for sharing this!

@denise—BEAUTIFUL!! thank you for that. never heard that before :)

And I’m gonna need to buy Unplanned for sure now….. looks awesome. thanks jen for the interview.

Denise,
I have a bachelor’s degree in biology and have echoed your exact points for years.  What kind of mental gyrations must trained-physicians and scientists go through in order to believe that a human embryo is anything but exactly that—a human being?  The American public, sadly, is hugely illiterate in science, particularly the science of human body.  This makes the job of the pro-life movement so much more difficult, because the ignorance of the public makes them all the more susceptible to believing the untruths of the abortionists.

I apologize for my callous remarks.  They were inappropriate and I was out of line.  God bless you.

That’s beautiful, Riley. We’re all on the path to more virtue in our lives if we’re truly following Christ.  God bless you too.

Abby is a friend of mine as well :) I started an organization to help pregnant women get the resources they need (and help after they have the baby) so that they don’t feel pressured into abortion.
http://unbiasedpregnancy.webs.com/
I hope you’ll check it out Elizabeth (and anyone else) and leave some feedback. You’ll find Abby on there. I hope you can come join and help us help women!

Thank you for this article, I ‘m so happy to ‘know’ Elizabeth!  Everyone in the pro-life movement should read unPlanned for two reasons.  1) Encouragement, and 2) enlightenment.  Our time is coming.  :)

@Rebecca and Kris: I am pro-choice in as much as I am for a woman’s right to choose when, and if, to have sex and thereby to decide for herself when, and if, to have children. I am for a woman’s right to pursue any career path she has proven herself capable of pursuing. I am for a woman’s right to choose where she lives, what job she holds if she chooses to hold one, who she marries if she decides to marry, what clothes she wears and how she styles her hair.  These things are all in her power already without the need for either contraception or abortion.  It is not my right, nor anyone’s right, to take the life of an innocent human being and therefore this is not a “choice” anyone should have the option of making.

This is a bit off the topic, but I was talking about this book the other day with a vociferous pro-choice colleague of mine, and her contention was that Abby became pro-life and left PP only after she had received some bad performance reviews and was in danger of being fired.  Her claim was that Abby ‘converted’ to the pro-life cause in order to get help with finding a new job and as a means of getting back at her former co-workers.  I think what Abby and Elizabeth are doing is wonderful and uplifting, and I’d hate to think these allegations are true- does anyone know if Abby has commented on them at all?

Thanks.

@Madlyn: If it were true, don’t you think the proof of it would be all over the news by now? Ask your friend for the proof.

Oh, I agree- I don’t think the accusations are true.  I hope I didn’t give that impression.  My colleague does not claim to have any ‘proof’, only information from the blogosphere (eg http://feministsforchoice.com/abby-johnsons-story-doesnt-hold-water.htm).  Just wondering if Abby has responded to any of these claims.

Madlyn:  It’s generally a bad idea to spread this kind of unproven gossip.

@Meredith: Gossip is bad, but I think Madlyn is just feeling some uncertainties and is looking for some confirmation of what she already knows is true. We all need that kind of help from time to time. It also helps those who are reaching out to others in the pro-choice community to be aware of the kind of misinformation that is out there.