Abby Johnson

‪I prayed with tears multiple times while reading this book. The testimonies within are heart-shattering and convicting, and the book is worth the read for these important stories. However, the last two chapters were very problematic for me, and made me think a lot about how I view the issue of repentant abortion workers.

There is a difficult balance between having mercy for those involved in the abortion “industry” and giving regard to justice. Abortion is a grave and evil thing. show more Other murderers are forgiven, yes, but unlike with abortion, we do not feel the need to sugarcoat it because of the way these criminals found their life of evil. People who murder their born children have no doubt experienced the deformation of conscience that is laid out tragically in this book. Read about the lives of rapists and murderers, and you’ll almost inevitably find tragedy - often far, far worse tragedies than most of the abortionists in this book have experienced. Everyone has a story that will break your heart. We can’t let our emotions override legitimate justice. If we did, we’d find a way to exculpate 99% of criminals from responsibility for their crimes.

Some of the critiques of pro-life tactics and optics felt very consequentialist to me. (This is a great article on consequentialism that applies well here: http://padreperegrino.org/2019/03/consequentialism) I don’t think pro-lifers are crazy extremists for using language that isn’t sensitive enough for abortion workers to hear (there are valid criticisms of pro life tactics in this book as well, but a lot of it rubbed me the wrong way. It made me think “but... you just said that these people are killing babies. Killing. Babies.”), to use just one example from the book. At one point, the “save the babies, no matter what” approach is actually demeaned, and the “make abortion unthinkable” approach is seemingly championed as the only moral way a Christian pro-lifer should engage in activism. I admit a feeling of prejudice against this sort of language, common as it is with liberal Catholicism and the “consistent life ethic” wherein a denial of social programming funds is tantamount to baby killing.

Abby’s disapproval of the death penalty is explicitly against Catholic teaching that it is morally licit. I sincerely hope she will educate herself on that issue. I think it’s quite telling as to her mindset. I am thankful for much of her activism and especially the practical, on the ground work she does to help people leave this evil business. However, I can’t help but think (admitting of course that I do not know Abby and am working with limited information) she needs to balance rejoicing in being forgiven and freed of an eternity in hell with the understanding that she deserves life in prison for what she has done. In any sane society this would be so.

Am I saying I hope in twenty years that people who have left the abortion industry and given their lives to the pro life cause will end up in jail? No. But when we conquer this evil, there will come a time when we actually do have to take legal action against those who provide abortions. It would go a very long way for ex-clinic workers to have an attitude along the lines of “I would humbly accept this just punishment in this life for what I have done. I hope the public will be merciful and see I have repented and want to make amends outside of prison.” instead of expecting us to forgive them AND free them from temporal consequences for their crimes. The tone in parts of this book struck me as downright insulting. As though those pro-lifers in their righteous anger and desire for justice for MURDERED CHILDREN are actually being “hateful”!

I know I’m a sinner. I know it is by God’s grace that I didn’t commit these specific sins. But we all have to accept earthly consequences, even when we come to Christ and He forgives us perfectly. I bear the wounds of my past sins every day. I want people to forgive me - but I don’t expect them to pretend that, for example, my past sins against chastity have no effect on my current partner. Or that my son’s reality as the son of a low income single mother just goes away now because we have Jesus Christ.

It’s an inescapable reality: when we see ourselves with eyes of grace, sometimes for the first time in our lives, we are faced with a “purgation” for what we have done. Perhaps God’s will for Abby Johnson is that she will help people to see the horror of the abortion industry; and that is mercy - unmerited mercy, extraordinary mercy. Perhaps that is her purgation. But that doesn’t mean that is the only thing that will - or should - happen for people who have perpetrated these horrific crimes. show less

Unplanned, by Abby Johnson

St. Augustine has one of the most famous conversion stories. In the midst of his anguish, not being strong enough to throw off his life of sin, he chances to hear a child calling out the command of a game. 'Pick up and read' prompted him to reach for a nearby Bible, and he started reading the first lines that caught his eyes, St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans:

Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not show more in contention and envy:
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences.

And that's how it all started for St. Augustine - sort of. For those who have read the Confessions of St. Augustine, one knows that he struggled for a long time, trying to make that last break from his life. Heck, he managed to write a good sized book about it! Seriously, though, Augustine had to deal with the problem of knowing the right thing to do but not being able to just do it. It takes him a long time, but thanks to the Grace of God and a lot of prayers from his mother, he does enter the Church, become a priest, then a bishop, and is now recognized as a saint.

Abby Johnson's book follows a similar pattern. She recalls her recruitment into the Planned Parenthood organization, and her eventual advancement to managing an abortuary in East Texas. She begins to question the policies of the organization; in particular, she finds that money is the ultimate motivator for Planned Parenthood. At the same time, she begins to have doubts about the abortions being performed. This inner struggle culminates with the day she assists at an abortion. She held the ultrasound probe for the doctor, and therefore watched the little infant torn apart on the viewing screen.

Shortly afterward, Johnson leaves Planned Parenthood, but she still faced challenges - both personal and legal - as she became a spokeswoman for the Pro-Life movement.

I strongly recommend this book. It shows the real purpose for Planned Parenthood: to generate income at the expense of women who are under extreme stress. show less

unPLANNED – Abby Johnson

This is a book that once I had begun to read I could not, as the saying goes, “put it down”. I hesitate to commence this review with a negative thought but I must confess from the start that this is a book I would not normally have read; a book for the ladies and a bit boring was my rather uncharitable thought as my wife Karen showed it to me after the purchase. However when I looked through and scanned the pages briefly – more out of politeness rather from a show more real, genuine interest if truth be told – I could not but be grabbed by the story. How wrong I was to judge it so dismissively, and so quickly. A lesson was learnt and I read on!

Abortion, for that is what the book is basically about, is perhaps one of the most controversial (and emotional) areas under discussion today. A subject about which many extreme views are held - on both sides of the fence - and a subject that can be guaranteed to cause hot debate (and even, sadly, violence) whenever and wherever it’s discussed. I must add at this point that if you are looking for a book that goes into great detail and reasoning on the various views (of the pros and cons of abortion) then this is not for you. It simply tells the story of one person’s (Abby Johnson) journey over several years from belonging to one ‘camp’ and to moving to the other. It is written simply and, I believe, honestly, and occasionally disturbingly so.

To quote from the cover of the book, “Abby Johnson joined a pro choice organisation (in the US) as a college student because she wanted to help women in crisis – a goal she believed the organisation shared. As she rose through the ranks to become a clinic director, however, things started to shift. Finances grew tighter, clinic practices changed, and Abby became increasingly unsettled about what she was being asked to do. But it wasn’t until she helped perform an actual abortion procedure that Abby fully realised what she’d been part of all those years.”

Abbey commenced her association with Planned Parenthood as a volunteer in 2001 and her role included escorting women from their cars to the clinic, helping with paperwork, being compassionate and making women generally cared for. One of the major goals of the clinic was, to ‘make abortions rare” and to provide education regarding birth control. In her own words, Abby “could not wait to get started”. After only a few years during which she was involved in media work on behalf of Planned Parenthood, she was eventually promoted to the position of director at a clinic in Bryan, Texas. In 2008 she was recognized as "employee of the year."

Throughout the book Abby contrasts the work of Planned Parenthood, which, you may recall is basically a pro-choice organization with the work done by their “opponents” the pro life group, Coalition for Life. We are introduced to a number of pro life characters some of which stand and pray quietly outside the clinic, whilst other, more extreme, folk paraded anti abortion banners and placards, with one fellow even going so far as to dress up as the Grim Reaper. The book goes into some details regarding the inter play between the two groups and the various methods of communication used. I found the contrast between the two groups fascinating and quite revealing, for example how they both operate, the different life views and different behaviors.

Abby’s own views whilst they had been changing gradually were challenged very dramatically one day when she was asked to help in an actual abortion procedure. This event was to turn Abby’s life and values around 180 degrees. The description in the book of the procedure itself (an ultrasound guided abortion) whilst graphic and honestly portrayed is not over stated. In my view enough detail is given as to leave no doubt of the horror of the process but is not done gratuitously. On a personal level, as a reader, I was told what I needed to know and no more. For me that was enough. After the abortion Abby joined the Coalition for Life and she has been active in that movement ever since.

The part of the book where Abby describes her feelings and emotions as she makes the momentous step of crossing the street to join the “enemy” was for me one of the most powerful parts of the book. So much so I read it several times. Here is a woman, well known, respected and admired within her own organization, realising with conviction and admitting that the position she supported and worked for was, in her own mind, wrong and, with the courage of her convictions, spoke out. Not only to speak out, but to act. Truly the high point of the book.

This book is, in some respects an “easy read”. Not too long, well written and set at an easy pace – I read it in two or three sittings. What makes it a “difficult” read, however, is the subject under discussion. Some perhaps, due to personal experience may find it a little too close to home. It is a book too that can easily be lent to a non Christian friend as although there is what I call, Christian “noise” in the background (and indeed Biblical passages” are quoted from time to time) there is no obvious Christian agenda other than the pro choice / pro life viewpoint. (And that should be obvious anyway from a casual look at the back cover).

Unplanned is a must read.

Dave B. show less

Abby Johnson shares her story of how she became involved with the Planned Parenthood organization in order to help women by providing them with birth control in order to prevent and reduce the number of abortions. She loved helping women so much that she eventually became the director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Tx. She shares her experiences through the years with the Coalition for Life group that prayed on the other side of the fence at her clinic trying to talk women out of show more getting abortions. Eventually, after 8 years, she assisted in an abortion and actually seeing what happens along with the fact that, for the first time, Planned Parenthood had given her a goal of increasing the number of abortions at her clinic in order to bring in revenue, Abby changed her mind and joined the "other side".

I appreciate the fact that Abby presents a fair and balanced view of both sides of the issue. I found it sad that she experienced rejection from two different churches - one because she worked at an abortion clinic and later, another church because she had quit the clinic and was no longer seen as pro-choice.
I appreciate that the Coalition for Life just prays for and helps women and does not participate in the killing of abortion doctors and bombing of clinics and other outrageous things like that.
I also like that they pray for the people who work for and volunteer at the Planned Parenthood clinics.
I personally have always thought that both of the groups - those that are pro-choice and those that are anti-abortion are too extreme and I have been offended by the ones with the graphic signs and appalled by those who justify murdering doctors because they see it as saving lives.
I hope that Abby's group prays for those extremists as well.
I think this book really shows the power of prayer and it's role in Abby's life.
I found this book to be very thought provoking. show less