In 1984, a video entitled, The Silent Scream was published by a former abortionist and NARAL “Pro-Choice” America founder Dr, Bernard Nathanson and the National Right to Life Committee. The video shows a first trimester abortion via ultrasound. During the abortion process, the baby resisted the advancing cannula (suction apparatus) as his or her arms and legs and other body parts were being systematically dismembered. The ultrasound video clearly showed the baby going through much pain and suffering during his or her’s very gruesome ordeal. (This video is on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hb3DFELq4Y )
Now, fast forward about 25 years to September 26, 2009. Abby Johnson was 29 years old, and the director of the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Bryan, Texas where she had a front row seat to her own personal viewing of an abortion via ultrasound. On that day, Abby had her defining “Silent Scream” moment and that became the start of her pro-life journey. Abby’s book, unPlanned tells the entire story very well as she really gives the reader a very good view of Planned Parenthood from the inside.
Unlike The Silent Scream video, the abortion that Abby saw was classified as an ultrasound guided abortion which is not a common practice at a Planned Parenthood abortion mill. An ultrasound guided abortion simply means, the abortionist is using the ultrasound technology as a tool to help him do the abortion by watching the ultrasound monitor as he is performing the abortion. This helps the abortionist ensure that he has totally evacuated the entire baby from the uterus. With the abortion procedure in The Silent Scream video, the abortionist was performing a conventional first trimester abortion that just happened to be recorded on ultrasound video. The abortionist did not actually see the video of his handy-work until after the procedure had been done. After the abortionist saw the torment that he put the baby through in his or her final seconds of life, he stopped performing abortions. Also, the camera operator in The Silent Scream video was an outspoken pro-abortion feminist. When she saw the same thing, she too changed her mind about abortion.
So, if the abortionist and the camera operator in The Silent Scream video, and Abby change their minds about abortion after viewing only one ultrasound procedure, what does that tell you about the abortionist who routinely performs unltrasound guided abortions and is able to routinely watch his victims struggle and fight for dear life as he murders them? To top it off, the abortionist in Abby’s ultrasound viewing had a special code that he used to tell the nurse to turn on the vacuum machine. He said, “beam me up Scotty.” If this guy is not sick and sadistic, then I don’t know who would be.
There are many different ways one can arrive at being pro-life. My journey started out much like Abby’s in that I too thought that abortion was okay in the first trimester, but once “it” becomes a fetus and is “viable” then abortion would be wrong. However, I didn’t need to see an abortion procedure via ultrasound to become pro-life. They had me at “life begins at conception” once it was explained to me in DNA terms. For some, seeing some pictures of first trimester babies (aborted or intact) would be enough. And for others, it would take an ultrasound or fiber optic viewing. As for Abby, she required a lot more convincing because she had more invested in the abortion cause. In her book, Abby tells how she bought into Planned Parenthood’s lies and deception. In spite of seeing hundreds if not thousands of first trimester babies via ultrasound during the pre-abortion exam and the carnage of aborted babies afterward, that was not enough to convince Abby how wrong abortion was. Abby actually believed that a first trimester baby did not feel any pain because that is what Planned Parenthood specifically instructed their employees to tell their vulnerable pre-abortive clients when they asked if that their babies will feel any pain.
Another lie of Planned Parenthood that Abby bought into was that it was their goal to “reduce” the number of abortions and make them “rare” by pushing birth control. Any informed pro-lifer knows that this is one of the biggest jokes of all. However, in Abby’s case, she had to learn the fallacy behind that lie for herself over time. On March 24, 1989 when Abby was nine years old, I and eight other pro-life rescuers went into the Houston Planned Parenthood facility and held a sit-in/lock-in in the waiting room for more than two hours before we were arrested and hauled off to jail. Since “reducing the number of abortions” was Planned Parenthood’s stated objective, we thought we would help them out because we too wanted to reduce the number of abortions. Our unwelcomed visit seemed to work because we reduced their number of abortions by 54 that day. However, the Planned Parenthood staff was not very receptive to our help. Peter Durkin, who was the Executive Director of the South East Texas Planned Parenthood at the time called us “terrorists” and “thugs,” and Susan Nenney who was a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, called us “reproductive terrorists.”
The type of pro-life activism that I just described took place during the rescue era, which went on a few years before Abby came on the scene in 2001. As Abby described in her book, the most radical level of pro-life activism that she witnessed were picketers carrying signs and pictures of aborted babies and shouting. Then, there was one guy in particular who wore a grim reaper costume. After Abby became director of the Bryan Planned Parenthood she received three death threats and just four months before she left Planned Parenthood, late term abortionist George Tiller (aka Tiller the Baby Killer) was taken out by counter hit-man Scott Roeder. In spite of the of the wide range of pro-life activism (both legal and illegal) that Abby was exposed to, she always managed to make the distinction between the pro-lifers who were doing the softer kind of protesting such and praying and sidewalk counseling, and those who were more vocal and dramatic. I think Abby’s interaction with the soft protesters who were associated with The Coalition For Life is the most compelling part of her book.
The biggest take away that I got from Abby’s book unPlanned, was learning about the people with The Coalition For Life and how their gentle behavior affected her. During my time of pro-life activism in the rescue era, our focus was on either persuading the pre-abortive mothers from going into the abortion mill by sidewalk counseling or picketing, or non-violently disabling the abortion mill by picketing and/or sit-ins. The idea of trying to reach out to the abortionists, their staff or the volunteer escorts in love and win them over really did not figure in very much into our overall strategy. We pretty much wrote all of them off as terminal due to the adversarial nature of our relationship with them. We kept our focus on the babies first and then the mothers. The Coalition For Life proved to me that their constant persistence of sidewalk counseling and prayer on a frequent basis over a long period of time does work. Abby’s book reveals stories of how The Coalition For Life protesters always treated her with kindness. On one occasion, one of them brought Abby some flowers with an attached note that read, “Abby we love you and are praying for you.” As it turned out, she kept that note at her desk throughout her remaining years there at Planned Parenthood. That act of kindness and others like that had a profound impact on Abby and helped set the stage for her upcoming defining moment of clarity.
Now here is the real kicker, when Abby finally reached her final breaking point and was ready break away from Planned Parenthood and make contact with the pro-life community, it was The Coalition For Life whom she reached out to for help. Abby went into detail in her book as to how they compassionately embraced and accepted her. The Coalition For Life was there for Abby when she needed them the most, not the hard core radicals. As for me and the activists whom I was associated with during the rescue era, I have no doubt that we would have received Abby much the same way she was received by The Coalition For Life. However, looking at this from Abby’s point of view, I don’t think she would have felt comfortable and safe coming to us for help as she did with The Coalition For Life because we viewed people like her as the enemy, not as a co-victim of the abortion industry who also needed to be saved.
Abby told her story of how she was recruited by Planned Parenthood and rose up through their ranks. However, I don’t think that was the real tragedy for her. The real tragedy was that no one from the pro-life side ever got to Abby before Planned Parenthood did. I think if someone would have showed Abby The Silent Scream or Eclipse of Reason videos beforehand, she probably would have never joined Planned Parenthood. In any case, I highly recommend that you buy a copy of Abby’s book and read it. unPlanned is smooth read from cover to cover. Abby is now a rising star in the pro-life movement and her efforts are worthy of our support. She has added a whole new dimension to the pro-life movement by creating a program for reaching out to abortion mill workers. This is another effective tool in stopping abortion because an abortionist can’t kill babies if he doesn’t have a support staff to assist him. Abby also effective in helping post abortive mothers. Abby is a tremendous lady and I am glad to see that she is now using her extraordinary gifts and talents for the Lord.
I also highly recommend that you support The Coalition For Life and their efforts, especially during their 40 Days For Life campaigns. All the prayers from the 40 Days For Life campaigns was the main catalyst that helped save Abby from the abortion industry, and there are many more people like Abby Johnson who need to be saved.
A special word to my hard core pro-life activist brothers and sisters:
If you feel compelled to engage in the harder forms of abortion protests, such as preaching, chanting and using inflammatory signs and theater, I would respectfully ask that you keep that style of protesting away from any of the abortion mills where The Coalition For Life is present and especially during their 40 Days For Life campaigns. This hard style of protesting is not what The Coalition For Life is about. The softer type of protesting is more their style, especially if they have a mobile Crisis Pregnancy Center bus in from of the abortion mill. The objective is to get as many women on that bus as possible and the more dramatic types of protesting does not help achieve that end. I am not suggesting that the harder forms of protesting are wrong because I have been there and done that. If you really feel strongly about using the harder forms of protesting, please do it at another mill and may God be with you as you do.
