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A Planned Parenthood director: “I can’t do this anymore”
For the past eight years, Abby Johnson has worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, the last two years as its director. But then she saw an ultrasound of an abortion procedure. “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 told KBTX-TV (link includes a video interview with Johnson).
She also began to disagree with the organization’s new business model of pushing for more abortions: “The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that.”
Johnson, who resigned on Oct. 6, has joined forces with Coalition for Life and has been praying with the group on the sidewalk in front of her former employer’s place of business. Planned Parenthood has reacted to Johnson’s leaving by slapping a temporary restraining order on her and Coalition for Life. A hearing on the order is set for Nov. 10.
HT: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.
back to top40 Comments to “A Planned Parenthood director: “I can’t do this anymore””
Planned Parenthood has reacted to Johnson’s leaving by slapping a temporary restraining order on her and Coalition for Life
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Why? What are they afriad of?
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If only more women would realize what happens in an abortion! I do not think that most could proceed with having one or in supporting it.
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Follow the money. It’s not about making abortions, “safe, legal and rare”. It’s about what makes money.
And the restraining order? That gives the lie to “tolerance” and “free choice” buzzwords doesn’t it?
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She also began to disagree with the organization’s new business model of pushing for more abortions”
You mean they’ve been lying to us all this time? You mean they aren’t about Parenthood?
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PTL!
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Wow, I’m with you Xion! I am shocked shocked shocked. Reminds me of the recent headline:
POLL FINDS SUBSTANDARD FARE, HIGH PRICES NO DETERRENT TO HOOTERS RESTAURANT PATRONS.
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What are they restraining Johnson from?
Surely they don’t have any secrets?
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news2me 11.02.09 AT 6:03 PM
What are they restraining Johnson from?
Surely they don’t have any secrets?
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how much money they give to a certain man in the white house under the table maybe?
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surely you jest, Pastor ROY?
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news2me 11.02.09 AT 6:10 PM
surely you jest, Pastor ROY?
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Planned Parenthood to ACORN to Obama
Planned Parenthood to the Union to Obama
Planned Parenthood to Obama
but never report the money.
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I hope WORLD MAG keeps us informed on the outcome of the whole restraining order thing.
I don’t know how they can keep her from talking. It’s not a secret recipe or anything.
I would love for Planned Parenthood to take a fall.
Sometimes when it seems hopeless, God shows us more light.
PRAISE GOD
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news2me 11.02.09 AT 6:16 PM
I hope WORLD MAG keeps us informed on the outcome of the whole restraining order thing.
I don’t know how they can keep her from talking. It’s not a secret recipe or anything.
I would love for Planned Parenthood to take a fall.
Sometimes when it seems hopeless, God shows us more light.
PRAISE GOD
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pray
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Where O where has NJL gone?
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Let’s be thankful this woman has seen the light and done the ethical thing–resigned her job and told about it. Carol Kent did the same thing.
We can all be regretful it took her this many years, but like with Bernard Nathanson, the Holy Spirit eventually got through.
Even if you fully support abortion rights, this is a miserable job. We used to pray for people who worked at abortion clinics. Imagine the nightmares if your job was to count the body parts every day?
I salute her honesty.
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I think you should encourage people not to have abortions and to support alternatives such as adoption. I know many of you do.
I still don’t see the difference between miscarriage and abortion. A dead fetus is a dead fetus. If it goes to Heaven, why would it want to have been born? If it does not go to Heaven, then there are stome sticky theological issues you haven’t explained very well.
I still am puzzled given all the cruelty and suffering in the world why abortion has so much greater valence here than other issues. I still regard the obsession with this issue as a symptom of evangelical Christianity as an infantile religious branch.
I could go on.
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“I still don’t see the difference between miscarriage and abortion”
You can’t see the difference between an accident and premeditated murder?
Now that’s infantile!
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RANDOM #15: “I still don’t see the difference between miscarriage and abortion.”
Maybe you should ask someone who has left the abortion business, like Johnson.
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Some good news is that the number of abortions has been decreasing.
But if you look closely you’ll notice something interesting. The ratio of married to unmarried women seeking abortions over the years remains constant.
About 82% of abortions are for unmarried women (and most of these are minorities). I wonder whether abortions for married people are mostly for those where birth defects have been detected?
So here is the short answer to Random’s question. The difference between miscarriage and abortion is that in one case a child is wanted and tragically lost. In the other, a child is unwanted and treated like waste so that two people who don’t care enough about each other to marry can have sex without consequences (at least 82% of the time).
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Then I assume, Random, you can’t see the difference between a volcano eruption and a nuke.
Or an epidemic and biochemical warfare.
Or a plane crash and a hijacking.
Or an accident and sabotage.
Or human-induced vs. lightning-induced wildfires.
Or a heart attack and being shot in the heart.
Or cancer and poisoning.
The list goes on.
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Random, by your logic, it is less cruel to kill a baby than a child and less cruel to kill a child than a teenager. Is that what you are saying?
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This shows time is on our side. As technology improves, it becomes more and more difficult to see abortion as anything other than the voluntary destruction of an innocent human life. There is money to be made in such killings, to be sure, and so it will go on. But those profiting from the carnage will have to abandon reason; they will either become totally calloused, go crazy, or end up where Abby Johnson has — finally coming to terms with the truth and having the courage to do something about it.
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Random Name,
Unless you can provide us with any prominent (adult) atheist anywhere who thinks as you do, and does not discern any difference between miscarriage and abortion, I have to think you’re alone in your obstinate ignorance.
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Macrutabaga – he’s accomplishing his goal: say something absurd or irreational, and then have three quarters of the posts be about him.
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Hmmm…
In my experience, many people feel uneasy about abortion. In my experience, many people feel uneasy about murder. Yet all over the world and all throughout time, people murder people and people abort babies.
Nothing can be done about what happened in the past. Can anything be done about what happens now and in the future? I have never killed anyone? As far as I know I have never saved anyone’s life, though a few people have told me I was helpful to them.
My wife and I chose not to have an abortion when she became pregnant on our honeymoon. My brother and his wife chose not to have an abortion when she became pregnant after raising two children. My sister chose not to have an abortion after she was a victim of statutory rape.
Would it have mattered if the decision had gone the other way?
Does it matter that there are millions of abortions around the world? I don’t know that it does.
I am a cheerful 65-year-old nihilist. Genocide bothers me more than abortion. I don’t see the difference between an American baby being aborted than a Chinese baby being aborted. I don’t know how posting comments on this blog prevents either abortions or murders. It’s mostly a way that people amuse and distract themselves against the waves of nihilism and despair that lap against their psyches.
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Wow, Random, you’re right! You’re admitting that abortion doesn’t matter in your worldview. I didn’t expect that. I agree: nothing matters in your worldview, and there is no difference between a volcano eruption and a nuke.
But then, you turn it around and claim to care about genocide? Why is that different? Abortion is genocide.
In a worldview where actions and morals matter, however, you’d have to admit that it’s a big deal.
(P.S. You seem to think that we think American abortions are worse than Chinese abortions. We don’t.)
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TJS – I think he’s engaging in a bit of psychological projection. Only a thief thinks everyone else is a thief. When you’re a nihilist, by definition nothing “matters,” so the only thing left to talk about is stuff like preferences and what makes one “feel uneasy,” which also doesn’t really matter, so I say, why bother?
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How much of your time do you spend actually changing the world and how much of your time do you spend reading and posting comments on worlmagblog?
TJS:
1) I admit that there are contradictions in my world view. As far as I can tell, you do not admit there are contradictions in your world view.
2) In an abortion, a creature that has no knowledge of itself is fairly quickly killed. There may be some pain involved, as Drill is obsessed with dwelling on; if society develops ways to eliminate the pain and make abortion instantaneous, what then is the problem?
3) In murder, or genocide, a creature that is aware of itself and has hopes and dreams and a life, may die in conscious fear and terror from the only life it has. I suppose if all murders are instant and without pain, then my analogy holds.
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Buzzy,
As I’ve pointed out, many people who take exception if I speculate on their beliefs and motivations, are perfectly willing to do so about me.
Perhaps you should tell me why you bother to read and post comments on worldmagblog?
There is always what Victoria said to me once:
Why not?
Wise woman, that Victoria.
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Why does self-awareness matter in your way of thinking, since you have admitted to being a nihilist? Would the opinion of a person who has the opposite sentiments (comfortable with the killing of self-aware people, but unconfortable with the killing of non-self-aware people) be any less valid? If so, by what standard of validity?
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Random -
You have just provided a rationale for killing infants. A fetus is no more self aware than a newborn.
Murder has more to do with the motive of the murderer than the state of mind of the victim. It’s not OK to kill someone in order to benefit your lifestyle – even if they are not aware that they are being killed.
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Random, I cannot speak for people who take exception to your speculations on their beliefs, you’ll have to ask them. As for why I participate in WMB: the same reason I converse with anyone else … I’m a social creature by nature, and I’m able to communicate in the English language with other people who know that language, so — why not?
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Random Name 11.03.09 AT 8:31 AM
How much of your time do you spend actually changing the world and how much of your time do you spend reading and posting comments on worlmagblog?
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Posting here can help change the world by reaching and helping other who read these postig,
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FWIW, the goal of “changing the world” seems a bit overblown (and somewhat adolescent), to me at least. Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot changed the world, but I think we wish they hadn’t. Plus, the world is and will always be the world, and few can change it in any significant way. Perhaps we should be more precise and talk about improving the lives of others, which is what I take your remark about “reaching and helping others who read these postings” to be about. To what extent they are reached and helped is unkowable, but presumably one can try.
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” In an abortion, a creature that has no knowledge of itself is fairly quickly killed.”
So how much knowledge did you have of yourself while sleeping last night? Have you ever been under general anesthesia? How much genuine knowledge do you have about the self awareness of a baby in the womb? What does being alert to our immediate environment have to do with being a living human being deserving protection against willful killilng?
“Yet all over the world and all throughout time, people murder people and people abort babies”
Since people continue to murder anyway, why should we bother condemning the practice? I guess you can’t get any more nihillistic than that.
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Random:
1) I’m thinking that “contradictions” by definition make a worldview untenable. I can’t think of any in mine: perhaps you could enlighten me. If I notice any, I’ve generally tried to modify my thinking. For example: eternal hell seemed to me to be a contradiction with God’s nature and the message of salvation, so I researched it, and lo and behold, there was another option.
2) a) Society hasn’t. b) No, that wouldn’t come close to fixing the problem. In your worldview, life is nothing special, so abortion is not a big deal. I don’t see why murder is a big deal, even if they’re completely self-aware.
But you asked about mine. So: it matters not how self-aware they are. As Ken said, sleeping people are unaware. You could knock someone out before killing them: does that make a difference? How about the mentally ill?
3) You are right. If all murders are instant and without pain, then your analogy holds. There would be no problem, unless you have some notion of life being sacred, or something. You shouldn’t, unless you’re some kind of closet Christian. Honestly, there shouldn’t be a problem even with a long, painful, terrifying death.
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Posting here can help change the world by reaching and helping other who read these postig,
Uh-huh.
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#33
To what extent they are reached and helped is unkowable, but presumably one can try.
Maybe you are just bored and restless, and your church leaves you unsatisfied?
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#34
Since people continue to murder anyway, why should we bother condemning the practice? I guess you can’t get any more nihillistic than that.
Send people to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill for peace?
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#35
I am a sentimental person. Also, by the time I realized I was a nihilist, I was too old to take over and enslave the world to my selfish purposes.
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#37 – No.
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