SERAPHIM
HOME 
DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE
>> SILENT SCREAM
!! . FFC >Youth. MASS . BIBLE .. Diary >>DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE
MHII 140512
SILENT SCREAM ! ! (mummy!)
Abby Johnson
Nationality: American
Occupation: Author, Senior Policy Advisor at Americans United for Life, Live Action research director
Known for: Pro-life activism
Website: abbyjohnson.org
Abby Johnson (born c. 1980) 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.
Work at Planned Parenthood
Born and raised in a "conservative,
pro-life family" from Texas, 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.
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
gestation.
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 statements regarding 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.
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 Life.
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.
In December 2011, it was announced that Johnson had been hired by Americans United for Life as Senior
Policy Advisor.
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 and has one daughter.
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 this church. She was received into the Roman Catholic Church on December 4, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_Johnson_%28activist%29
Abby fb https://www.facebook.com/abbyjohnsonprolife
Michael
13 May 2012, Mothers Day
>> SILENT SCREAM !! . >>DIVINE
MERCY
APOSTOLATE
>FFC >Youth >MASS >BIBLE >Catechism >Sacrament
>Saints >St Peter’s Church