Last night, on the eve of the release of former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson’s book Unplanned, she revealed during a webcast what she had witnessed during her eight years of volunteering and working with Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. Over 21,000 people listened to that webcast. In 2009, after witnessing an ultrasound-guided abortion, Johnson resigned her position and became pro-life. She is planning to come into the Catholic Church this coming Easter.
What was it that you saw that October day that caused your change of heart?
I had never seen an ultrasound-guided abortion before. They’re not standard procedure because they take a few extra minutes. To the best of my knowledgeit was the first time it had happened at our facility.
I was called in to help. My job was to hold the ultrasound probe on the woman’s abdomen so that the physician could get a view inside the uterus. I got everything ready. When I looked at the screen and heard them say that she was 13 weeks pregnant, on the screen I saw the profile of a 13-week-old baby in the womb. I had seen thousands of ultrasounds before, including ultrasounds of my own daughter Grace, who is now four. In that instant, I had a flashback to my own ultrasound of my daughter when I was 12 weeks pregnant. In that instant, I realized what was about to happen and what I was about to witness.
As I was trying to get it together and talk myself back into it, I recalled all of the things I had said for so many years to justify abortion – all the things that I thought I believed deep down in my core.
When the abortion procedure started, I saw the child begin to move away from the abortion instrument and recoil. The child knew that it’s life was in danger. Before that moment, I had never even considered that the child in the womb felt pain or felt anything for that matter. Planned Parenthood had always told us that the fetus had no sensory development until 28 weeks.
I needed to believe that to continue to justify abortion. I was surprised, shocked, appalled and disgusted at what I was watching. I felt betrayed because I couldn’t believe that this company that I had believed and trusted in had lied. I didn’t want to believe it, but was looking at it so clearly. The evidence was in front of my face. The abortion started and in just a few moments, the screen was black, and the abortion was complete. In that moment, I knew that my life was going to have to change. I knew that I couldn’t walk out of there the same way that I had walked in.
How did you end up working at Planned Parenthood?
I grew up in a wonderful, conservative, pro-life family. We were in church every time the doors were open. I was involved in the youth group and was a good kid in high school. I remember in high school saying that I was pro-life, but if you would have put me up to a debate on abortion, I would have lost because it wasn’t something we frequently discussed.
When I went to college, during my junior year, I attended a volunteer fair. What caught my attention at the Planned Parenthood booth was the hot pink. It was my favorite color, and the Planned Parenthood booth was drowning in hot pink. I went over to the booth and there was a sweet woman there. She asked me what I knew about Planned Parenthood. I honestly didn’t know a thing.
When she told me that Planned Parenthood offers free testing and exams for men and women, I thought that was sweet. Who wouldn’t love Planed Parenthood? When I started volunteering, she later told me that they offered abortion services. I told her I came from a prolife family. She said she understood that tradition, but that if abortion were made illegal, thousands of women would die from back-alley abortions. She said that their goal was to make the need for abortion rare. Since I had never considered both sides of the issue, I was pretty easily taken in.
As you moved into a paid position and later management, you began to see another side to Planned Parenthood, didn’t you?
When I was volunteering, I had gotten hooked in because Planned Parenthood said that they wanted to reduce the number of abortions. Yet, through my own experience contracepting, having two unplanned pregnancies, and twice having an abortion, this didn’t make sense. When I started working there in 2005 as a paid employee, almost all of the women who I counseled were contracepting, yet were having abortions. It didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t seem like their goal of expanding the use of contraception was reducing the number of abortions.
They wanted us to increase the quota of surgical abortions that we were providing, so that we had a certain number of abortion clients every month. They were increasing that number.
They also wanted to, and were going to offer, medically-induced (RU-486) abortions many times a week by offering something similar to tele-medicine. In true tele-medicine, the patient has a conference with the physician, but in what they were doing, the patient had no contact with a physician.
This was disturbing to me because there are many possible complications. I had lived through nearly every complication with my second abortion, so I was nervous about these women who were choosing this without any physician counsel.
We had no physician on-staff to help them. If something went wrong, the women would either have to go to the emergency room, or drive two hours away to Houston. If they were septic or hemorrhaging, two hours could be too late.
Yet, Planned Parenthood wanted to increase abortion by this method.
It was disturbing that they wanted to constantly up the abortion numbers at our facility, when I had originally been told that it was all about decreasing the numbers. Now that I was in management, I could see their real intentions.
Planned Parenthood receives a lot of government funding. Last year, it received more than $350 million in tax money. They are willing to take a loss in their family planning business because of the profit they make in abortion. We could see that in our budget every year. Our family planning budget was in the red, but the abortion business was way in the black. That was troubling because I thought we were a non-profit. When I asked about that in our management meetings I was told over and over again that non-profit is a tax status, not a business status.
I was involved in the Consortium of Abortion Providers, a sub-group under Planned Parenthood. They would use a map of the U.S. with dots to show all of the Planned Parenthood facilities. Let’s say that all of the non-abortion providing Planned Parenthood centers had green dots, and all of those that provided abortion had red dots. Their specific goal was to turn every green dot into a red dot. They wanted to expand every non-abortion providing Planned Parenthood into an abortion providing Planned Parenthood.
What do you have to say to those who are currently working in the abortion industry?
I want you to know that there is a peace and a joy that you can have too. Right now, you don’t have it and don’t know what it feels like. I thought I had that. I thought I was a happy person, but I was a conflicted person. I thought I had joy, but I was a person living a dysfunctional life who was constantly on the defensive.
You’re probably embarrassed to tell others what you really do. You don’t have to be embarrassed any more. It’s shameful to take the lives of other human beings. You don’t have to be in that shameful environment any more. You can come to a side of the fence where there is compassion, love, and healing. That’s what we want to help you find – that peace and that joy.



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I listened with intent interest to Abby’s recent webcast rolling out her book. I hope she exposes the evil and profit side of Planned Parenthood- like nothing has ever done ! I am also profoundly amazed at a historical documentary which also exposes Planned Parenthood. The film is called Maafa21 With UnPlanned in one hand and Maafa21 in the other- we now have the tools we need to really show the world how evil Planned Parenthood is . When you purchase UnPlanned- go here and also purchase Maafa21- you will not regret it http://www.maafa21.com
Jezu, ufam tobie.
Thank you, Abby, for your courageous witness. Thank You, Lord, for guiding this dear sister into Your Church. Please pray for Abby as she’s been targeted today with threats against her four year old daughter :(
Thank you Abby for sharing to others what Planned Parenthood is all about. What amazes me is that Planned Parenthood told her that a fetus has no sensory development until 28 weeks and YET I had my 4th child 14 weeks early at 26 weeks and he is perfectly healthy. They AMAZE me…God Bless you Abby for walking away!
I had the privilege of seeing and hearing Abby at a Vitae Caring Foundation dinner in Springfield, Mo last November. I even had the privilege of talking to her after her presentation. She is a “a gift from
God” to the pro-life movement. Now, at 87 years of age, I have real hope
that through Abby Americans will know the truth about Planned Parenthood and work to get rid of them and legal abortion!
Everyone should read this!
When will over 50% of Catholics stop voting for pro abortion politicians? In our efforts for “social justice” we are going further and further away from True Justice
God bless you, Abby, for letting the world know how evil and Satanic Planned Parenthood is. We do remember their Founders follow the philosophy of Hitler. Sadly, they have expanded their murderous tentacles to our poor country Kenya with the help of Obama and American Tax money. They drafted the “Reproductive Health Bill” for legislation in 2007/2008 when we were busy murdering one another because the so-called Obama cousin had insisted his Presidential Election Victory had been stolen, yet it was conclusively established that he had lost the election. Since he all along - during the campaigns - knew he would lose, he had convinced the whole country with the help of the media and blatant lies that the Election would be rigged and he had openly declared that when this happened, he would make the country ungovernable. So when he lost - as it was clear he would - his well-planned and heavily financed tribal warriors struck with murderous violence, murdering, raping, burning properties and evicting the specifically targetted winning President’s tribesmen, Obama and his Government forced us to have a Coalition Government and dictated we embark on getting a new Constitution. That is when the Planned Parenthood - again with Obama’s support and American financing - sent the “Reproductive Health” Clause to the Constitutional Select Committee with instruction it be included in the new Constitution under the protected Human Rights Provisions. These Provisions can never be amended unless we hold another referendum - which is another way of ensuring abortion on demand, same-sex marriages and euthanasia will remain part of our new Constitution. When the Catholic Church opposed those Provisions, the Church was accused of lying. After the heavily foreign-financed Campaign, the Constitution was eventually passed with those evil Clauses. It is only just now dawning on Kenyans that the Church was right all along and they are horrified at the enormity and the seriousness of the calamities the Planned Parenthood has visited upon our country as the Local Branch of Planned Parenthood - once again financed by the American Taxpayers money - has embarked on opening Abortion Clinics countrywide. I am fervently praying Abby Johnson’s book will be available in this country when it comes out so that everybody can realize just how evil Planned Parenthood are with their malevolent Agenda of mass murder and genocide of millions of innocent unborn babies. But we must all remember that God is there and is seeing all these abominations. Let no one make a mistake of believing He will not act because He will. America will pay dearly for supporting and financing this Satanic Association of Death Merchants. But what saddens us most is that the American President, whose philandering father was our countryman, found it fit and proper to condemn our unborn babies to death in their mother’s wombs. He who was a perfect subject for abortion and was only saved because his mother had better sense. She chose to allow her baby to live even though she discovered too late that the man she thought loved her was a polygamist and a man of loose morals who shunned family responsibilities.
God Bless you richly, Abby! Thank you for sharing, for taking a stand for those who have no voice!
The “rest of the story” on Abby Johnson, who is now in a Catholic church RCIA program:
“NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
DECEMBER 20, 2009
Power of Prayer
I read with interest the article by Carlos Briceño, “Heart-Altering Power,” in your Nov. 22 edition. There is more to the story — and it is about God’s almighty power and the power of prayer.
For a few years before Abby Johnson left Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, a young lady named Elizabeth McClung was often at the fence outside the Planned Parenthood abortion business at dawn or before the employees and abortionists arrived. She spoke to Abby Johnson once when Abby arrived, and then she found out Abby’s name and told her that she was praying for her.
Once Elizabeth brought her flowers with a prayer card. Abby kept that card, and it was on her desk. After Abby witnessed the unborn baby trying to avoid being killed on the ultrasound, she returned to her desk and saw that prayer card.
When Abby went weeping to the Bryan Coalition for Life, she asked to see Elizabeth. Elizabeth had moved to Austin.
Eventually, Abby called Elizabeth and told her all about her conversion. Elizabeth has started the Austin Coalition for Life in the most liberal town in Texas, which has four abortion businesses. Elizabeth recently organized hundreds of people in Austin to take part in the 40 Days for Life Campaign, praying at the abortion clinics in Austin. They already have had a role in the saving of unborn babies there.
I am very proud of Elizabeth McClung; she is my loving and lovable daughter.
And that’s the rest of the story.
Guy McClung
Houston, Texas”
Truth will prevail. Good works are accomplished, not by politicians nor by persons in high places, but by those chosen as instruments by God to do the work “in the vineyard of the Lord.” You, Amy, now walk with God. Hallelujah!!
Thanks Tim for realizing the urgency of posting this to a blog. God bless you for promoting the Culture of Life!
And God bless Abby Johnson as well. I’ll certainly get this book.
I was one of the 21,000-plus who listened to the webcast Monday night. As someone in the pro life movement for years, I wasn’t surprised at most of what I heard.
However, Abby’s admission that she was contracepting BOTH times before her abortions, and that the majority of women who have abortions at PP were also contracepting when they became pregnant, is certainly evidence that contraception in NOT the way to bring abortions to an end.
We are constantly told that if we only gave in on the contraception issue, abortion would be rare. We now have evidence from the very people who spout this nonsense that contraception INCREASES ABORTIONS.
The Catholic Church has known this for years.
Another blockbuster for me was Abby’s revelation that PP is a “non-profit” in name only but not in business. PP is well in the black because of its abortion profits and not because of its other “services,” which are in the red and serve as nothing but cover. That a third of their “income” is government support should anger every taxpayer in the U.S.!
There have been other books exposing Planned Parenthood, but if this particular one has a huge national impact it will indicate to me that God is moving to end this holocaust! Let us all pray for that! 47 years and 50 million surgical abortions is more evil than this country can stand!
We must remember that “our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens”.( Eph. 6 ) We are not fighting people but the forces of satan. Each and every one of us can easily be deceived by sin and its falsehoods. I know firsthand too about converting from the contraceptive mentality to a real pro-life way of livng. We are serving GOD or serving satan. That is our free choice. Continue to speak truth to everyone. Let us pray that the denial that is enslaving our world is broken. Only the Truth can set us free.
Abby is to me what you would call a modern day martyr, literally putting herself at risk (agains the big giant of PP) in order to speak the truth. God be with you Abby as you walk this journey. Your testimony will change the hearts of many.
I wonder what would happen if we sent copies of this book to the President, similar to the “Red Envelope” campaign. We could include pro-abortion politicians and the leadership at Notre Dame as well. Imagine getting several (or several hundred) copies of that book at your office.
In response to
“Posted by anita alexander on Wednesday, Jan 12, 2011 10:31 AM (EST):
When will over 50% of Catholics stop voting for pro abortion politicians? In our efforts for “social justice” we are going further and further away from True Justice”
If you will look at your history, the pro life politicians were in power when Roe v. Wade passed, and have held the White House and both houses of Congress multiple times since and have never done anything “pro life” with that power. I vote the way I do to provide the best life I can for the children God has given me. I refuse to become a one issue voter when the so called Pro Life politicians refuse to act on that one issue.
Thank God 4 ds exposure. I just pray d mercy of God in d blood of Jesus still keep Him from reacting to d cries of d unborn babies. The solution lies in d church getting hold of power.
The grace of God is with you Abby! Your a voice for the unborn, a true witness to the hand of evil. Thank you for speaking out and sharing your story. God Bless!
What a negative view! No abortion isn’t nice, but for some women it’s their last resort. I wouldn’t be willing to bring a child into a world where I know we would both be living under the poverty line. I’m not saying this is the case with all these women, obviously. But you cannot deny the good Planned Parenthood has done. Without it, I probably would have been pregnant and barely scraping by, but I was educated by Planned Parenthood, and use their facilities for birth control and have never had an unwanted pregnancy. But at least I’d have somewhere to turn if it happened. Open your minds people, both sides have a lot of valid points, try and see that.
It is a blessing to see how many people are praying to end abortion on demand in every tragic phase of it.
May Our Heavenly Father increase the desire in our hearts to end the killing of innocents in the United States and all other countries.
May He increase the fortitude and prayer life of us all particularly in this endeavor.
And may we offer every blessed innocent martyr to God and ask them to intervene for us before the Almighty to forgive our world and open our eyes more and more everyday to this holocaust in our very midst.
Thank you Abby for your contribution, and let us join prayer warriors like Elisabeth McClung who pray before abortion clinics
—and also, increase our prayers for women and men in any crisis pregnancy situation to listen to their hearts and see the face of their unborn child already there waiting only for their own ‘yes’ to God to care for their baby or to give their baby up for adoption for others to love and care for.
Thank you to all the marchers for life! And too, the counselors at the Crisis Pregnancy Centers who volunteer their time and money to help girls and their babies and their families too.
And thank you to God, the Author of Life, Who allows every life to be weaved and formed in his/her mother’s womb and Who tells us not to harm even one of them; please give us the courage to allow your Divine work in us to be fulfilled.
Give us Faith, Lord, for we are weak and can do no good on our own without Your first giving each of us the thought, the understanding and the desire to do good in our lives.
For You are All Good and can do no wrong.
Help us to put all our trust in You, All Knowing, All Loving, All Merciful God!
Help us to not be afraid or deceived anymore by the evil one, in our own misunderstanding or stubborn choice of ignorance.
Help us to trust You Dear God and open our hearts to You more and more everyday. In Jesus’Holy Name, Amen.
Rene, so PP provided you with birth control that either killed the living child of God in your womb (or even before it got there), or it prevented your most beautiful gift God gave you - joining with God as a co-creator of a precious human soul. How can you call this evil good?
God knows this child exists from conception. If he is willing to bring billions of souls into lifelong poverty, who are you to tell God that he is wrong to give you or another parent in a third-world country a new life?
I just finished reading UnPlanned this morning and am quite moved. Although pro-life for some time now, I felt particularly called at the end of the book where Abby tells how she helped the lady with six kids already. I can do that, even given my very busy life right now; I can gather up gently used baby items and donate them to organizations like the Tepeyac Center in Fairfax, VA or House of Mercy in Manassas, VA. I was also moved at how the prayers of those dedicated folks outside the fence eventually moved Abby. It should give us all renewed hope in prayer. Abby, you and your family are in my prayers. Thank you for your courage.
I don’t like Planned Parenthood, but I have an even bigger issue with private physicians that hide in their offices and do early abortions flying under the radar. At least with PP, we all know what they are about. Back in ‘77 I was 15 yrs old and had an abortion forced on me by my parents done by the good old neiborhoood gynocologist. He did them in his office and he actually was on staff at the local Catholic hospital, even though he did the abortions in his office. I tried my best to say no, but was railroaded into it, he took my parents side, no matter how I cried and after it was over he had me look at the jar part of the device and said well now does that look like a baby to you? We all need to keep after Planned Parenthood, but a concerted effort needs to be made to expose private physicians who are committing abortions.
I am so sorry for what you were put through Kate. I hope you have had the opportunity to attend a Rachael’s Vineyard weekend retreat or a post-abortive bible study in order to heal. I have been involved with 40 days/sidewalk counseling at private doctor’s offices outside Atlanta. It is very difficult to speak to the women because it is usually on private property but it is not impossible. With enough people praying, and the neighborhood learning about the abortionist, the pressure mounts and doctors do quit performing abortions with the support of prolife people to help them find new work and healing as well. Many mothers do turn around as well. 40 days works very well. It is a movement of God.
A few considerations: She gets hooked on Planned Parenthood because of the color Pink ? This is the sharpest knife in the box apparently who thinks she is to become the COO? Perhaps some aggie research Abby, into Planned Parenthood first could have answered all of your questions—info is NOT at all hard to find on them. Next, she volunteers at one of the most active clinics with protestors as she told Bill OReily and still is seeing pink only. Still no clue. Then she becomes a manager—still all is good and pink. Connect the dots and I see a big media story that started when pink turned black for abby. Yes, some of her allegations are well known truths== but twisted by the organization for the publics interpretation—but how she is the innocent victim in all this is a bit disgusting. She forgets its all about choices—she made hers when she was a worker, rather doubt a clinic manager is a Executive as she wants you to think. Now since her story is getting old and tired, she is telling everyone she had abortions. Information overload and who cares. Your story was interesting until it started getting hyped and real weird. Move on Abby and get a grip.
To: Not a PP supporter: Abby Johnson may be no saint, but God is using her as he has used no other human person as His instrument to expose the lies and deceit and evil of Planned Barrenhood. Who of us is the perfect instrument? There was only One and He could walk on water. Look around, check out the media, check out PP’s flailing responses and you will know what good God is doing through Abby. In all of PP history and the history of USA since Roe V Wade, there has been NO ONE like Abby. He chose her and then she, God Bless Her, chose Him. Thank God Abby has “moved on” from PP and Thank God that she is in the palm of His hand now, and thank Him that he has “a grip” on her.
Dear Abby, Thank you so much for your testimony. I used to walk in the Susan B. Koman Race for the Cure, until I found out they donate some of the money they receive to Planned Parenthood for abortion. I felt betrayed and miss led. I never walked in Race for the Cure again and tell as many people as I can what they do.
Often a woman is not ready to have a baby; is she to be punished by forcing her to have a child? Who will support that child?
Do you care as much for the living child as you do for the developing fetus? What do you do for them?
Adoption is not an answer. No woman should be stripped of her child because she cannot afford it or for other reasons not raise her own child herself.
I fear the day may come when back-alley abortions return and women face danger in such environments.
Adoption is a valid answer. I am adopted. I am grateful that my mother gave me life and was unselfish enough to allow me to be adopted into a loving family. From the point of view of giving life to your child or taking it…I say give your child life. Nine months is a very short time to deal with pregnancy and all that goes along with it versus a life knowing you participated in taking your babies’ life.
To Anita Alexander,
Roe vs. Wade wasn’t “passed.” itmis not a law, rather a decision made by the Suprme Court. It matters not which party controlled the House, Senate and White House when the Court decision was handed down or what side of the issue they were on. What matters greatly is which President appointed the Judges that sat on that particulr court. This is the number one reason that members of the Pro Life movement need to vote against Obama’s re-election, because the next president will most likely appoint replacements for a few Supreme Court Justices.
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