Unplanned Part Two

Another article break for this excellent auto-biography by Abby Johnson. Today we delve further into things that quite frankly, I would never have admitted to in her own place! In this part of unplanned, she talks about her two abortions and how she hid them from her parents, as well as the failure of her first marriage.

More than that, she talks about how every time her life was screwed up, Planned Parenthood was there to help her through it. She does not paint a picture of an evil organization, not by default, but of one that helped her through some very challenging and difficult times. One that helped her as she went back to school and as she went on to pursue a Masters degree.

Yet at the same time, she speaks of the transformation of the pro-lifers at the fence. How Coalition for Life drove off the people with graphic photos of abortion and dressed as the grim reaper; opting instead for a Christ-like ministry of being gentle and compassionate. And to that end, how wrong it felt to her to be in the clinic and ill at ease with a 40 Days of Life campaign underway, where people were praying at the fence 24 hours a day.

She speaks of a nun in full habit who would brave the heat and sob when someone would abort their child. She speaks of a kindly 73 year old retired policeman who never missed his Wednesday and Saturday prayer shifts and treated everyone with the utmost respect. She speaks of the young couple who came to run the Coalition, and their constant witness, and the heartbreak she felt when she ignored one pro-life Coalition volunteer who had brought her flowers and a card.

In the course of these chapters, she describes these people to her husband and he approves of them, but she keeps saying as nice as they are, she can't go over to their side. She has to keep defending all the Planned Parenthood talking points, and she does that as best she can. Yet, she makes sure when she finally becomes Director at the clinic to no longer call the cops on the protesters unless something violent happens...and is forced to when she gets death threats.

When Hurricane Ike hit, she kept her clinic open that Friday and scheduled all the abortions from Saturday to take place then. Something that earned her an employee of the year award from her Planned Parenthood affiliate. When the budget cuts came, her clinic was the only one exempt from review because it met the goals laid out. Then came a fateful set of meetings...abortion quotas were raised. Family planning was to be cut back. Medicated abortions were to be pushed heavily, something she was especially unhappy with after her own horrifying experience with one.

As she argued with her superiors, she got a formal reprimand for asking why they had to increase abortions, and was told that non-profit was a tax status, not a business plan. George Tiller was killed and she became fearful, having known him from conferences. Eventually though, she found herself feeling as if things were closing in; she had joined to help women and had begun feeling more ill at ease with the abortion part of her job.

Then came the day she had to help with an ultrasound guided abortion, and saw on the screen a baby. She told herself the fetus feels no pain, but it wriggled away from the instrument and then was sucked in, the tiny spine going last. That effected her enough she knew she had to get out and intended to before the next surgical abortions in two weeks, and began to job hunt.

A week later, she found herself in tears in her office. It was as if this place that had been her home was now oppressive to her, and she realized she needed help. And that was when she realized there were people who would talk to her, even if they were suspicious. The Coalition for Life.