April 16, 2010
Former abortion center director describes change of heart
Abby Johnson pauses for a photograph after speaking at the Right to Life banquet, April 8, at The Centre in Evansville. (Message photo by Paul R. Leingang) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
A former employee of Planned Parenthood in Texas, Abby Johnson, said her life changed when she “saw this child’s life expire before my eyes.” She was helping perform the abortion, holding an ultra-sound device to guide the suction and cutting device wielded by a doctor.
From a Planned Parenthood “employee of the year” in 2008, Johnson has become an advocate for life. She was a guest speaker at the 2010 Right to Life Banquet April 8, held at The Centre in Evansville with over 2,000 people in attendance.
The crowd was hushed as Johnson told of her realization of the true horror of abortion.
She said she had held various positions with Planned Parenthood, from a volunteer escort to director of an abortion center. She said she had first volunteered, believing she was helping women to have the full range of options guaranteed under the law.
But Johnson discounted the claim that Planned Parenthood offers troubled women a choice. She told of visiting 34 abortion centers in Texas, asking to see their materials on options. Not one of them had any printed material on fetal development or adoption, she said.
At the clinic where she worked, she said, the budget called for increasing the number of client abortions, not the number of family planning counseling sessions.
She noted that Evansville has no abortion clinic but said she knew from a consortium of abortion providers that “this town is on the map.” She encouraged pro-life proponents to keep Planned Parenthood out of schools.
She encouraged prayer, not protests, outside abortion clinics, affirming efforts such as the “40 Days for Life” involving peaceful prayer at abortion clinics — where abortions are taking place. “They are not happening at the White House,” she said.
During her presentation, she made several reference to politics.
“This is about the children,” she said. “They don’t have a political party.”
And describing her call for changing attitudes in the United States, she said, “It’s not politics. It truly is about changing hearts and minds.”
The keynote speaker at the event was Kirk Cameron, an actor known for his role in the television sitcom, Growing Pains, and most recently for his lead role in the movie, Fireproof.
Cameron drew appreciative applause when he pulled out his wallet and examined family photos. He and his wife have six children, four of them adop-ted.
Cameron, who has become an evangelist, ran the gamut from supporting adoption to listing significant moments from Fireproof, to decrying the evils of pornography to calling for everyone “to be born again.”
Artwork on display in the lobby of the Centre included a painting by Ali Nord, a senior at Tecumseh High School in Lynville, who was the winner of an art scholarship.
The program book featured the text of the oratory scholarship winning entry, “Freedom for Life” by Bill Muensterman, a senior at Mater Dei High School in Evansville.
Muensterman delivered his presention at the banquet, saying in part that freedom for life “means the power to make this world a democracy in which one’s life is like a ballot and one’s actions are like a vote for the future of our world, and every single vote from every single person makes a difference.”
The sponsoring organization of the banquet, formerly known as Vanderburgh County Right to Life, is now known as Right to Life of Southwest Indiana.