Abby Johnson (activist)
Encyclopedia
Abby Johnson is an American
pro-life
activist. Johnson had previously worked a Planned Parenthood
clinic director, but resigned in October 2009. She later stated that she resigned after watching an abortion
on ultrasound
.
Johnson is the chief research strategist for Live Action
, a pro-life organization that is known for conducting sting operations against Planned Parenthood clinics.
She holds a B.S. (psychology) from Texas A&M University
and an M.A. (counseling) from Sam Houston State University
.
, Johnson began volunteering for Planned Parenthood after seeing their booth at a fair at her college. She said she hadn't heard of the group before and didn't know they performed abortions, and Planned Parenthood told her they wanted to reduce the number of abortions. Johnson volunteered in 2001, and progressed to the position of community services director. She worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan
, Texas
for eight years, escorting women into the clinic from their cars and eventually working as director of the clinic. Johnson regularly encountered activists from the local pro-life group who waited at the clinic's fence to talk to clients, and described extensive harassment of clinic staff by antiabortion activists. Describing death threats against herself and her family, she stated: "It's very scary, this group of people that claim to be these peaceful prayer warriors, or whatever they call themselves, it's kind of ironic that some of them would be sending death threats." The Planned Parenthood clinic named Johnson "Employee of the Year" in 2008.
. She said she was disconcerted to see how similar the ultrasound image looked to one of her own daughter. Johnson, who previously believed fetuses could not feel anything while being aborted, says she saw the fetus squirming and twisting to avoid the vacuum tube which would be used to suck and destroy the fetus.
"For the briefest moment," she wrote in her memoir, Unplanned, "the baby looked as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then it crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then it was gone."
"I just thought I can't do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me, and I thought that's it," Johnson said. She continued working at the clinic, but soon met with Shawn Carney, leader of the local pro-life group Coalition for Life and now a leader of 40 Days for Life
, with whom she was well-acquainted after his years of activism against Planned Parenthood. She told him she could no longer continue assisting women in getting abortions. She resigned on October 6, 2009. "I feel so pure in heart [since leaving her job]. I don't have this guilt, I don't have this burden on me any more, that's how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion," she said.
Johnson said after her resignation that her bosses had pressured her to increase profits by performing more and more abortions at the clinic. "Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming.' It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers," she said. Johnson estimated the clinic profited $350 on every abortion. An article on Salon.com
questioned Johnson's claims of financial incentives for abortions, noting that abortions comprise only 3% of Planned Parenthood's services. Fox News reported that Johnson was unable to provide any emails, letters, or other evidence to support her allegations about pressure to perform abortions.
Johnson's description of her conversion has been questioned. Planned Parenthood stated that its records do not show any ultrasound-guided abortions performed on the date when Johnson says she witnessed the procedure, and the physician who performed abortions at the Bryan clinic stated that Johnson had never been asked to assist in an abortion. Although Johnson said the abortion was of a 13-week-old fetus, records from the Texas Department of Health show no such abortions performed at the Bryan Clinic on the date in question.
According to a court petition filed by Planned Parenthood, Johnson was put on a "performance improvement plan" four days before her resignation. The petition says that following this she was seen "removing items" from the clinic and copying "confidential files" and had given the résumé, home address and phone number of an abortion provider to Coalition for Life. Planned Parenthood was granted a temporary restraining order
against Johnson and Coalition for Life after Johnson's resignation. The order was lifted by a court a week later. Johnson herself says the "performance improvement plan" was due to her reluctance to increase the number of abortions performed at her facility. Johnson also denies the accusations that she removed, copied, or distributed any confidential information and said in her book that her attorney disproved them at the time that the temporary restraining order was lifted.
Johnson's story received national coverage. She was embraced by the pro-life movement after her story went national in November 2009 and compared to Norma McCorvey
, the "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade
, the United States Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in 1973. McCorvey joined the pro-life movement in 1995.
.
Johnson released a book, Unplanned, in January 2011, detailing her work at Planned Parenthood and her conversion to the pro-life cause. She is the chief research strategist for Live Action
, a pro-life organization best known for its campaigns and sting operations against Planned Parenthood.
Johnson was raised as a Southern Baptist, but left the church because it objected to her work at Planned Parenthood. She and her husband Doug, who was raised as a Lutheran, stopped attending church altogether for two years before joining the Episcopal Church
, which has one of the most liberal stances on abortion of any Mainline Protestant denomination. After she went public with her conversion to the pro-life position, Johnson said she felt unwelcome at the church. Johnson later announced that she was in the process of entering the Roman Catholic Church
, and will be received into the Church on December 4, 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
activist. Johnson had previously worked a Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
clinic director, but resigned in October 2009. She later stated that she resigned after watching an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
on ultrasound
Medical ultrasonography
Diagnostic sonography is an ultrasound-based diagnostic imaging technique used for visualizing subcutaneous body structures including tendons, muscles, joints, vessels and internal organs for possible pathology or lesions...
.
Johnson is the chief research strategist for Live Action
Live Action (organization)
Live Action is an American pro-life non-profit organization founded by Lila Rose in 2004. According to their website, they are a "youth led movement dedicated to building a culture of life and ending abortion." They are known for controversial stings against Planned Parenthood clinics, the largest...
, a pro-life organization that is known for conducting sting operations against Planned Parenthood clinics.
She holds a B.S. (psychology) from Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
and an M.A. (counseling) from Sam Houston State University
Sam Houston State University
Sam Houston State University was founded in 1879 and is the third oldest public institution of higher learning in the State of Texas. It is located in Huntsville, Texas. It is one of the oldest purpose-built institutions for the instruction of teachers west of the Mississippi River and the first...
.
Work at Planned Parenthood
Born and raised in a "conservative, pro-life family" from TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Johnson began volunteering for Planned Parenthood after seeing their booth at a fair at her college. She said she hadn't heard of the group before and didn't know they performed abortions, and Planned Parenthood told her they wanted to reduce the number of abortions. Johnson volunteered in 2001, and progressed to the position of community services director. She worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan
Bryan, Texas
Bryan is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 76,201. It is the county seat of Brazos County and is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley . It shares its border with the city of College Station, which lies to its south...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
for eight years, escorting women into the clinic from their cars and eventually working as director of the clinic. Johnson regularly encountered activists from the local pro-life group who waited at the clinic's fence to talk to clients, and described extensive harassment of clinic staff by antiabortion activists. Describing death threats against herself and her family, she stated: "It's very scary, this group of people that claim to be these peaceful prayer warriors, or whatever they call themselves, it's kind of ironic that some of them would be sending death threats." The Planned Parenthood clinic named Johnson "Employee of the Year" in 2008.
Resignation
Johnson says that in September 2009, due to a personnel shortage she was called in to assist in an ultrasound-guided abortion of a fetus was at 13 weeks gestationGestation
Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....
. She said she was disconcerted to see how similar the ultrasound image looked to one of her own daughter. Johnson, who previously believed fetuses could not feel anything while being aborted, says she saw the fetus squirming and twisting to avoid the vacuum tube which would be used to suck and destroy the fetus.
"For the briefest moment," she wrote in her memoir, Unplanned, "the baby looked as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then it crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then it was gone."
"I just thought I can't do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me, and I thought that's it," Johnson said. She continued working at the clinic, but soon met with Shawn Carney, leader of the local pro-life group Coalition for Life and now a leader of 40 Days for Life
40 Days For Life
40 Days for Life is a pro-life campaign that was begun in 2004 by a local group in Bryan-College Station, Texas, led by David Bereit. The campaign is active in the fall and spring of each year, though local campaigns may continue it year-round...
, with whom she was well-acquainted after his years of activism against Planned Parenthood. She told him she could no longer continue assisting women in getting abortions. She resigned on October 6, 2009. "I feel so pure in heart [since leaving her job]. I don't have this guilt, I don't have this burden on me any more, that's how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion," she said.
Johnson said after her resignation that her bosses had pressured her to increase profits by performing more and more abortions at the clinic. "Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming.' It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers," she said. Johnson estimated the clinic profited $350 on every abortion. An article on Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
questioned Johnson's claims of financial incentives for abortions, noting that abortions comprise only 3% of Planned Parenthood's services. Fox News reported that Johnson was unable to provide any emails, letters, or other evidence to support her allegations about pressure to perform abortions.
Johnson's description of her conversion has been questioned. Planned Parenthood stated that its records do not show any ultrasound-guided abortions performed on the date when Johnson says she witnessed the procedure, and the physician who performed abortions at the Bryan clinic stated that Johnson had never been asked to assist in an abortion. Although Johnson said the abortion was of a 13-week-old fetus, records from the Texas Department of Health show no such abortions performed at the Bryan Clinic on the date in question.
According to a court petition filed by Planned Parenthood, Johnson was put on a "performance improvement plan" four days before her resignation. The petition says that following this she was seen "removing items" from the clinic and copying "confidential files" and had given the résumé, home address and phone number of an abortion provider to Coalition for Life. Planned Parenthood was granted a temporary restraining order
Restraining order
A restraining order or order of protection is a form of legal injunction that requires a party to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. A party that refuses to comply with an order faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
against Johnson and Coalition for Life after Johnson's resignation. The order was lifted by a court a week later. Johnson herself says the "performance improvement plan" was due to her reluctance to increase the number of abortions performed at her facility. Johnson also denies the accusations that she removed, copied, or distributed any confidential information and said in her book that her attorney disproved them at the time that the temporary restraining order was lifted.
Johnson's story received national coverage. She was embraced by the pro-life movement after her story went national in November 2009 and compared to Norma McCorvey
Norma McCorvey
Norma Leah McCorvey , better known by the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe", was the plaintiff in the landmark American lawsuit Roe v. Wade in 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned individual states' laws against abortion by ruling them unconstitutional...
, the "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
, the United States Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in 1973. McCorvey joined the pro-life movement in 1995.
Pro-life activism
Soon after her resignation, Johnson joined Coalition for Life, which regularly prays outside her former clinic. She has also worked with 40 Days for Life40 Days For Life
40 Days for Life is a pro-life campaign that was begun in 2004 by a local group in Bryan-College Station, Texas, led by David Bereit. The campaign is active in the fall and spring of each year, though local campaigns may continue it year-round...
.
Johnson released a book, Unplanned, in January 2011, detailing her work at Planned Parenthood and her conversion to the pro-life cause. She is the chief research strategist for Live Action
Live Action (organization)
Live Action is an American pro-life non-profit organization founded by Lila Rose in 2004. According to their website, they are a "youth led movement dedicated to building a culture of life and ending abortion." They are known for controversial stings against Planned Parenthood clinics, the largest...
, a pro-life organization best known for its campaigns and sting operations against Planned Parenthood.
Personal life and religion
Johnson revealed in January 2011 that she had had two abortions herself before the birth of her daughter, Grace. She is married.Johnson was raised as a Southern Baptist, but left the church because it objected to her work at Planned Parenthood. She and her husband Doug, who was raised as a Lutheran, stopped attending church altogether for two years before joining the Episcopal Church
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
, which has one of the most liberal stances on abortion of any Mainline Protestant denomination. After she went public with her conversion to the pro-life position, Johnson said she felt unwelcome at the church. Johnson later announced that she was in the process of entering the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, and will be received into the Church on December 4, 2011.