When nurse Noemi Padilla first arrived in Florida in 2001, she needed to find a job fast.

She took a night shift at the county jail, which was a long bus ride away.

“One morning as my shift was ending, the thought of another long trip home irritated me,” Padilla recalled to the Register.

When she got off the bus, she impulsively walked into an abortion business to inquire about a job, figuring she could walk there in five minutes from her apartment.

“The executive director interviewed me on the spot and then introduced me to the doctor, and 20 minutes later, they offered me a job and asked if I could start that same day,” Padilla said.

The offer of a $500 sign-on bonus made the offer attractive — even after a 12-hour shift.

“The bribery and conditioning started immediately,” she remembered of her first day as the recovery-room nurse manager at Tampa Women’s Health Center.

“We began to see patients at around 11 a.m. The support staff got excited [because] once we saw 12 patients we got free lunch, usually pizza or sandwiches. If we saw 24, we would get the ‘good lunch,’ Chinese or Jamaican food. That day, we ordered Chinese.”

She was also offered a new phone, as she recalled, “The doctor happened to see my old phone and said it wasn’t cool, that their clinical nurse couldn’t be seen with such an outdated phone, and that they’d get me a new one. I thought to myself, ‘What a productive day: new job that pays really [well], with lunch provided, in walking distance, new phone and a $500 sign-on bonus, so this is not a bad deal.’”

Personal Trauma

Padilla saw herself as helping women, “just like someone had helped me when I was 17. I wanted to empower and give women choices so that they could have a better life.”

A month before her high-school graduation, she became pregnant.

Her own abortion remains vivid in her memory: “I remember … the nurse shaking me to wake me. She said I cried and screamed a lot. I lied to them and said my boyfriend was outside and they let me go.”

At her new abortion center job, she wasn’t thinking at all about “killing babies.” She was thinking about “helping women.”

“I had no clue of the atrocities that happen behind closed doors at abortion clinics. That is not common knowledge, which is primarily why we ‘quitters’ speak out. We share the truth about what goes on inside the abortion clinics so that no one else gets fooled by them. That is our goal,” she explained to the Register.

One thing the nurse quickly learned was that “pro-choice only means pro-abortion. Abortion was the only choice ever offered — and many times forced onto — the women.”

Within a few weeks, the director was on leave following an injury. The owner offered Padilla the position, which she declined, at first.

“I was then told that it came with a pay increase that would make it worth my time. Enough said, I took the job. I actually thought that as the director I could make changes and implement policies that would make it better and safer for women and make the clinic a reputable medical facility.”

“I could not have been more wrong,” she recalled. “Every change I tried to make was denied.” Meanwhile, employees were regularly coming to work on drugs or alcohol.

“I can be pretty feisty at times and went about making changes, regardless of the owner: no coming to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol; utilizing universal precautions; proper attire, including hair and nails. All my changes were met with anger. Some of the staff quit and I had to hire replacements. I had become a part of the cult of coercion of new staff members. We had slim pickings. I hired young ladies fresh out of school with horrible grades, desperate and willing to work in any circumstance. These were the type of women I trained to assist with surgical procedures.”

Every day, the new director saw people outside the abortion center — praying. One woman always gave her a beautiful smile.

“She wore me down and chipped away at the brick wall I had built,” Padilla said. “She was one of the first people I contacted when I quit. I had an entire team of sidewalk advocates praying for me, despite all my attempts to alienate them and make them stop praying. I am forever grateful to them for being the hands and feet of Jesus and never giving up on me.”

Few people knew Padilla worked at an abortion center, and of her family who did, they were disappointed. But her brother, a chaplain, prayed with her by phone every night.

“His prayers were always so loving, peaceful and non-judgmental. He never asked about any details; he never chastised. It was always invitational, not confrontational. On the day that I quit [in 2017], my brother admitted that every prayer we had together he ended with a petition for God to guide me out of the abortion industry. We cried together, and I thanked him for his unconditional love, patience and faithfulness.”

Abortion’s Gruesome Impact

Padilla knew many women who were horribly impacted by abortion, herself included, as due to severe scarring from her abortion, she was unable to have more children.

“Abortion horribly impacts every woman that has had one. It may not happen immediately, but there comes a day that anger, regret and guilt kick in. Thank God that there are many programs and resources available to post-abortive women today.” (Among them is Rachel’s Vineyard.)

She has since found joy helping her youngest sister raise her three children.

“They are all my blessings and have given me the honor of parenting,” she said. “God never fails us, and he has allowed me to experience all joys and hurts, ups and downs of children.”

Working at the abortion center, Padilla was aware of God’s view of abortion, having been raised a Christian.

“I was convinced God did not know me or see me so I could fly under his radar and keep doing what I was doing. God was not allowed into the abortion clinic, literally. We were not allowed to wear any religious jewelry. We weren’t allowed to say his name or speak anything religion-related. I also felt my actions in life were beyond redemption so I may as well make money and not worry about God,” she admitted.

Like many “choice” advocates, the nurse’s main argument to support abortion was about rape and incest victims.

“What happens to all the unwanted babies that are born? Foster care and adoption services aren’t enough; no one protects the kids so God must allow abortions to balance these factors out. I was doing my part as a good nurse to make it safer and give women a chance at life. At least that’s what I thought. I couldn’t have been more wrong” — as she learned about two years into working that the abortion facility, starting when she saw into the womb.

“I had performed a sonogram (something I was not trained or certified to do. The owner of the facility was the one that taught me, and he didn’t have any medical/sonogram education himself) on a young lady who was 100% life-minded. She wasn’t going to be able to see an OB for another few months due to insurance. She asked to hear the heartbeat, even offered to pay extra to hear it. I allowed her to hear it, which meant I heard it also. And I could never un-hear it.”

“She came for repeat sonograms; and as much as I tried to avoid it, we bonded. She even invited me to her baby shower. I met her husband and family. She finally got into OB care and stopped coming to me for sonograms.”

But then the story took a heartbreaking turn.

“She was into her 24th week when I got a call from a hospital that they were referring a patient for an abortion due to a fetal anomaly, which means problems with the baby. They said neither the baby nor the mom would survive childbirth. It was the same patient. My gut told me this was incorrect and that I should not do this, but it was an expensive procedure that would help us meet our quota. The owner and doctor wouldn’t listen to me when I asked to postpone the procedure until we could get medical records. I even threatened to walk out but was told the procedure was happening with or without me, so I stayed and held her hand throughout the three-day procedure.”

Sadly, the sorrow did not end there.

“One week later, the records came in, and my gut instinct was right. The hospital had made an error, and the records did not show any signs of fetal anomaly. As a nurse I can’t say that the baby and the mom would absolutely have survived childbirth; no medical person can say that for sure. What I can say is that, on that day, that baby did not have to die by our hands, my hands.”

Exit Plan — for Life

“It was at that moment that I knew I needed an exit plan,” Padilla explained.

Yet she didn’t want to leave without encouraging the staff she’d hired to leave, too. She suggested they speak to the good people praying on the sidewalk.

“It took two years to get them all out, and then I quit! That very day I called And Then There Were None (ATTWN). They told me they’d been praying for me since the other women who’d quit the center had told them about me.”

“They’ve walked every step of the way with me. No one quits the abortion industry and is 100% pro-life without putting in the work: therapy, counseling and, above all else, reconciliation with the Lord. I did know that I needed to surround myself with pro-life love immediately, which ATTWN fostered by facilitating my attendance at their conference shortly after I quit.”

It was there that Padilla met other former abortion workers, including Abby Johnson, founder of ATTWN.

“I walked into a conference room filled with hundreds of people, and Abby (who had just given birth to her twins) stops what she was doing, walks over to me and gives me the tightest hug,” she said. “I just let loose and cried. I was home! I was with my forever family who know the ugliest darkest part of my life and loved me anyway! Loved me unconditionally! That hug, that moment with Abby, is what ignited my fire to save life — the life of the baby, the life of the family! Abortion affects everyone involved.”

She added, “I knew that this new journey was ordained and orchestrated by God. He has not stopped guiding me and opening up doors. I put in the work and it was hard. Healing my heart, mind, body and soul has been hard.”

Heartfelt Apologies Offered; Peace Received

Two years ago, God opened another door: literally the door to Oasis Pregnancy Care Center.

“It was the job that I never knew I needed or wanted. It has been the next phase of my healing journey. We start our day in prayer and fellowship; we pray throughout the day as we serve our community. I have been blessed with the opportunity to sit face-to-face with women [whose children] I have aborted and apologize to them. I totally did not know what to expect, but we cried together, healed a little together, then hugged! If that is not God-ordained, what is?”

In addition, she is now a liaison between “quitters” (ex-abortion workers) and ATTWN.

“My relationship with our Heavenly Father is stronger than ever in the most genuine of ways,” Padilla said. “I am surrounded by a tribe that loves me unconditionally, and I no longer harbor any secrets. I am a daughter of the most high God, and he loves me! What more can someone like me possibly ask for?”