by Bernadette Smith
October 17, 2018

Abby Johnson, the guest speaker at The Catherine Foundation’s 35th Anniversary Gala on Oct. 6 at the Waldorf Jaycees, gave a heartfelt talk about an issue that she knows from both sides — abortion.  Johnson interspersed her talk with self-deprecating humor and had attendees both crying and laughing. Johnson is a riveting speaker, and she knows from whence she speaks.

Johnson relates her experiences with the abortion industry in her best-selling memoir “Unplanned” and its follow up, “The Walls are Talking.” Johnson was in her junior year at Texas A&M, when a persuasive Planned Parenthood representative at a career fair appealed to Johnson’s desire to combine her leadership skills with her compassion.

Johnson signed on and rose to a Planned Parenthood clinic director. At a lavish banquet in 2009, Planned Parenthood honored Johnson with Employee of the Year Award. Johnson was proud to sit next to Hillary Clinton who received the Margaret Sanger Award.

Sanger was a eugenics founder and devotee who sought the “ … extermination of the Negro Race.” She pushed birth control, as reported in LifeNews “ … as the best way to get minorities and the handicapped, whom she detested, to voluntarily stop breeding.” Besides Clinton, another admirer of Sanger was Adolf Hitler who put into practice Sanger’s ideas of ridding the world of those deemed undesirable.

The longer Johnson worked for Planned Parenthood, the more she harbored doubts about the organization. Then one day, she participated in an ultrasound guided abortion. Johnson said that as the probe drew near the baby, he backed away and flailed his tiny arms and legs. He twisted and turned, “but there was nowhere for him to go.” The abortionist then said, “Beam me up, Scottie,” and the baby was sucked out of his mother’s womb piece by piece.

Johnson could no longer deny that abortion is the murder of innocents. She came to terms with the fact that Planned Parenthood’s messaging is based on lies.

One of the biggest falsehoods is that Planned Parenthood exists to help women. In truth, Planned Parenthood’s overarching goal is to make money. The more babies they murder, the more money is added to their coffers. Planned Parenthood encourages abortions and gives rewards for meeting quotas. Another lie is that legal abortions are safe. Aside from the moral depravity of killing a baby, the procedure is risky and dangerous to the mother no matter where it’s done or by whom. While abortion advocates tout the private relationship between a woman and her doctor, Johnson said there is no interaction between a woman and an abortionist. The lack of conversation is deliberate, because if women were informed, they would change their minds about aborting their children.

Johnson broke ranks with Planned Parenthood and joined her former opponents, the pro-life believers who warmly welcomed her. Thinking about how she had led women to discard their unborn babies “like trash,” Johnson said, “I fell to my knees and wept.”