Dr. Abby Johnson: And once I was in, that was it. Once I was in, the enemy started having control of my mind and my heart. I started justifying things that I knew were wrong.
John Fuller: That’s Dr. Abby Johnson reflecting on her time working at an abortion facility. And we’ll hear more from her today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, I’m John Fuller.
Jim Daly: Today, Abby will share with us a deeply personal look at how a series of seemingly small compromises, uh, led her to her first abortion when she was in college, and how she was lured into working for Planned Parenthood. If you have, uh, children or grandchildren in their teen years, you’ll definitely wanna keep listening. Abby Johnson has a PhD in counseling and she’s a very well-respected author and speaker in the pro-life community. She is the founder of two organizations, Pro Love Ministries, which helps connect pro-life organizations with the resources they need, and one that helps abortion staffers transition out of the abortion industry called And Then There Were None, which has helped over 600 workers leave the abortion industry. Abby is married to Doug. They have eight children and they live in Texas.
John: Here’s Abby Johnson speaking at Liberty University just a few months after Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court Dobbs decision in 2022. And if you have smaller children nearby, uh, you might want to use your earbuds or listen later via our podcast or download the Focus app for your smartphone.
Abby: I grew up knowing the Lord and loving Him and serving Him and, and doing all of those things, right? I remember my parents saying something about abortion when I was growing up. I remember them saying something about being pro-life, but it was a different time. It… The late ’70s, early ’80s, nobody was standing up and shouting their abortion, right? Women were not standing up at a podium and proud of the fact that they had killed their children. No women were wearing T-shirts saying things like “I’ve had an abortion.”
It was a time where anything involving sexuality was still considered taboo and people, they still had a filter back then. So not everything that came into the head came out of the mouth. So it was really a different time. And I think my parents just believed, you know, we have taught Abby the biblical pathway to marriage, which is abstinence until marriage. And certainly she’s gonna follow that and she’s gonna do everything that we have taught her to do. And so abortion’s never gonna be on the table, so we don’t need to talk about something so unpleasant with our little girl. And so we didn’t talk about it.
And I went to college at Texas A&M University, and I, uh, got involved with a guy who was eight years older than me. And that relationship escalated very quickly. It escalated physically very quickly. And I remember taking my first pregnancy test ever. And then I took like six more of them and they were all positive. And I went to, uh, my boyfriend’s apartment and I said, uh, “I’m pregnant.” And he said, “Oh, don’t worry.” He said, “I know exactly what to do. I know where to take you. I’ve taken other girls there before.”
Audience: Oh.
Abby: And I would like to tell you that I said, “Wow, you’re a big jerk and this is a big red flag and I’m leaving,” but I didn’t.
Audience: (laughing)
Abby: I was like, “Okay, where do we go?” And we made an appointment at an abortion clinic and we drove to Houston and he dropped me off at the curb. I went in alone. And I don’t remember a whole lot about that day. I do remember going into a group counseling session. Um, counseling, I’m using that pretty loosely, but I, I remember we watched a video and there was a, a woman there, one of the staff members, and she was sort of laughing at us, I guess, ’cause we looked nervous. And she said, “Oh, girls, don’t be nervous.” She said, “I’ve done this nine times, you’re gonna be fine.”
And, you know, that did make me feel better because I thought, “Oh, I’m only doing this once. And if she’s done it nine times and she’s okay, then I’m gonna be okay doing it one time.” I remember next being in the, in the actual procedure room, lying on the table. I remember it being excruciatingly painful. And then I remember waking up in the recovery room and a staff member came over. She stood me up. She got me dressed right in front of everyone. They gave me two Saltine crackers and a little plastic cup of tap water. And they sent me out the door.
I remember asking if I could wait in the lobby for my boyfriend to come pick me up. And they said, no, I had to wait outside on the curb. And so I did. He eventually picked me up and we drove home in silence. And I remember thinking, “Gosh, I’m so glad that’s over.” I was relieved. I d-, I didn’t have this regret. I didn’t have all of this angst inside of me. I just remember thinking, “This is the biggest crisis I’ve ever faced in my life. And now it’s over. And I don’t have to tell my parents and nobody’s ever gonna know.” And you know, I didn’t really wanna have an abortion, but my dad’s a deacon in the church and my mom plays the piano every Sunday morning. And they would be really, really embarrassed to know that their daughter who was unmarried was pregnant. And I don’t wanna cause any embarrassment and I don’t wanna be embarrassed. And I’m really ashamed of what I’ve done.
And I mean, my gosh, I’m a good Christian kid and I, I was on birth control and so good Christian kids on birth control aren’t supposed to get pregnant. That’s supposed to hide our sin, right? And I got caught. And so this is just gonna fix it. And now nobody has to be embarrassed and nobody’s gonna know, and I’ll just hide it. And then a year later, I was walking around on campus and I met a woman who was with Planned Parenthood and she started talking to me. I didn’t have my first abortion at a Planned Parenthood. And she started talking to me about all of the amazing things that Planned Parenthood does for women and how they’re just this benefactor to the masses and how low-income women would have nowhere else to go for healthcare if it wasn’t for Planned Parenthood. And I thought, “Well, gosh, that sounds good.”
I mean, who doesn’t wanna help women? Who doesn’t wanna liberate women? Who doesn’t wanna empower women? I mean, I do. And then she started talking about abortion and how if we didn’t have safe and legal abortion, women are gonna be forced to go to these dirty, filthy clinics and they’re gonna die. And I thought about the fact that I had just had an abortion the year before, and if I don’t help women have access to the same service that I just had access to a year before, then what am I? I’m just a big hypocrite.
And so I signed up and I, I went to work there that first day. And once I was in, that was it. Once I was in, the enemy started having control of my mind and my heart. I started justifying things that I knew were wrong. I started believing things that I knew were wrong. In fact, I didn’t even tell my parents that I was working at Planned Parenthood for an entire year and a half. I hid it from them because I knew they wouldn’t approve.
And then a year after working there, I had another unplanned pregnancy. But this time, it was easy to choose abortion because I was working and dealing with abortion every single day. So I had another abortion, wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t think of it as a baby. I didn’t, I didn’t care.
And then all of a sudden, eight years had gone by and now I’m running the clinic where I once started as just a volunteer. Eight years had gone by. Eight years, I had aborted two of my children. I had taught, I had gone into public schools and… public and private schools. I had, I had taught graphic sex education to children starting in kindergarten, teaching young children about things they should never know in kindergarten, trying to normalize sexual behavior in elementary school. That had been part of my job at Planned Parenthood. Eight years had gone by and, and I had helped to facilitate over 22,000 abortions.
And I, I really didn’t even know how it had gotten to that point. It just happened in the blink of an eye. But then it all changed one day when I was asked to go in and assist in an ultrasound-guided abortion. Ultrasounds are not usually used during an abortion. Abortions are typically done in a blind manner. But I was asked to come in and assist. I’m not a nurse, I was an administrator. But in the abortion industry, they don’t care. You just have to be a warm body and you have to be willing. And I was willing to come in and assist. And I stood there holding that ultrasound probe in place.
We did the measurement. The baby was 13 weeks along. At 13 weeks, everything is perfectly formed on a baby. Arms, legs, fingers, toes. Heart has been beating since 21 days post-conception. Brain waves are functioning. Every single internal organ that we sit here with today in our bodies is fully formed on a 13-week-old baby in the womb. That baby just needs more time to grow.
John: Such great insights from Dr. Abby Johnson on today’s episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And she has more fascinating details and perspectives about life in her book, Unplanned. We’ll send that to you for a donation of amount to Focus on the Family today. Uh, we’ve actually paired it with, uh, Abby’s new book for children called What’s in Mommy’s Tummy? And so you’ll get that bundle of books with your gift today. And as always, we’ll include a free audio download of this entire presentation as well. Donate and request those at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. Or when you call 800, the letter A and the word FAMILY, 800-232-6459. Let’s return now to more from Abby Johnson.
Abby: And I stood there looking at that ultrasound screen, not really knowing what I was about to see because I recognized that what I was looking at on that ultrasound screen really did look like a baby. Now I knew it wasn’t because I had been taught abortion science. And abortion science teaches us that a pregnancy only becomes a baby if that mother decides that the pregnancy is wanted. And if a mother decides that that pregnancy is not wanted, then that pregnancy is magically not a baby.
And this woman was here for an abortion. So even though it looked like a baby and it, and it was formed just like a baby, it couldn’t be a baby because it was not wanted. Even though it was a human being, even though it was alive, even though I could see its heart beating, even though scientifically, it had every single characteristic of an unborn child, I knew it could not be because of abortion science. And I stood there looking at that ultrasound screen, looking at that monitor, and I watched as the suction tube began going into the uterus of that woman. The suction wasn’t yet turned on. And as soon as that suction tube touched the side of that baby, that baby jumped.
It was as if he woke up and he began to flail his arms and legs as if he was trying to move away from that abortion instrument but there was nowhere for him to go. When the doctor had everything in the right position, he asked the technician to turn on the suction machine. And I watched this tiny, perfectly formed human being be torn into pieces by the power of that suction machine.
I knew in that moment that what I saw in just those few seconds was not choice. It was not reproductive justice, it was not justice of any kind. It was certainly not healthcare. I knew that what I had witnessed in those moments was murder, murder of an innocent human being in the womb. And I knew I could never participate in that again. I wanna be clear with you today ’cause you are young and you are vulnerable to our society. Our society today is trying to use you. They are trying to use your compassion. They are trying to guide you in the wrong direction. They are trying to say things to you like, “Well, abortion is the compassionate choice for women.”
They are trying to use these exceptional cases. They’re trying to say, “Well, what about this case? Or what about that case? Or what about this? Or what about that?” Lemme be really honest with you right now. The what abouts don’t matter because at the end of the what about is an innocent human being in the womb that deserves to live each and every time. And our society will abuse you as young people. They will misguide you as young people each and every time. That’s exactly what happened to me.
I was a compassionate person. I was a person who was seeking justice, but they perverted that sense of justice that was inside of me. And they used it against the innocent human being that I should have been trying to protect. I know this is a Christian school. I, I know I’m not, but I’m not naive enough to believe that there aren’t people here that have had abortions, that have participated in abortion, that have paid for an abortion, that have driven your friend to have abortions. And a lot of times we focus on this particular sin of abortion. Lemme tell you something.
There are many sins that lead up to the sin of abortion. I didn’t go to bed one night this good Christian kid and wake up working in an abortion clinic. That’s not the way it happened. I didn’t come home from youth group on a Wednesday night and start working in the abortion clinic on Thursday ’cause that’s not the way that sin works. Sin comes into your life one compromise, one justification, one lie at a time. It creeps in slowly a little bit at a time. You know how it started for me?
It did, it didn’t even start by me having sex with my boyfriend. That wasn’t even how it started. You know how it started for me? Immodesty. And I’m not just talking about immodesty and the stuff I wore. I mean, yeah, there was that too. But it was immodesty in language, immodesty in behavior and immodesty in dress. That led to a desire for attention because I started getting attention from men. And men that lacked virtue started giving me attention that I wanted. Men who, who didn’t want to uphold my virtue started giving me attention that I wanted.
So then I started craving that more and more. And then that did lead to sexual immorality. And then I wanted that more and more because then that gave me more attention. And then that led to my first unplanned pregnancy. And then that unplanned pregnancy led me to walking into the door of an abortion clinic, which led to me working there, which led to my second unplanned pregnancy, which led to my second abortion, which led to eight years of me working in the abortion industry, which led to me facilitating over 22,000 abortions.
It happened just a little bit at a time. You may be looking at me saying, “That could never happen to me. I could never have an abortion. I would never have an abortion. I would never work in an abortion clinic.” Lemme tell you something, guys. You are all just one cent away from walking down the path that I walked down. And it is not the path that you want. You don’t want this story, guys. This is not the story you want. You don’t want to one day be standing in front of 8,000 kids spouting out the biggest sins you’ve ever committed.
This is not glamorous. This is not the story you want. This is not the life that you want to lead. You know what life you wanna lead? You wanna lead the life that’s boring. You know what you want your story to be? You want your story to be this. “I don’t, I don’t know anything about committing all those sins because my life has always been following the path of Jesus Christ.” That’s what you want your life to be. But if you’ve already gone down those paths, lemme tell you something. It’s never too late to make a U-turn in your life.
I wish I had made a U-turn in my life. I wish I had made a U-turn before I had that first positive pregnancy test. I wish I would’ve had somebody speaking into my life, ministering into my life telling me, “Abby, you can turn this around. You don’t have to be getting the attention that you’re craving from men. You don’t have to be doing that.” I wish somebody would’ve told me, “Abby, it’s okay to be counter-cultural. You don’t have to be liked by everybody.”
When I left Planned Parenthood, they sued me. They took me to court. They tried to get a gag order against me. They did not want me to speak. That could have been scary. That could have been a time where I walked into that courtroom scared. But you know what? I walked… They had all these high-powered attorneys from Houston and New York and all this kind of crazy stuff. I walked in with my little small-town attorney who was doing this for free ’cause I didn’t have any money. And I could have walked into that courtroom full of fear. But you know what? I walked in with my head held high because I knew that on that other side of the courtroom, they were working for the enemy.
Audience: Yes.
Abby: And I knew that on our side, me and my little small-town attorney, we were working for the Lord.
Audience: Whoo. (Applause)
Abby: And I had nothing to fear.
Audience: Whoo. (Applause)
Abby: And we stared down the enemy of Planned Parenthood and we won.
Audience: Whoo. (Applause)
Abby: And when you are on the side of life, when you are on the side of Jesus Christ, you will always win.
Audience: Yeah. (Applause)
Abby: Yes, we have seen victory. Yes, we have seen Roe overturn. Yes, we have seen all of these good things happen. But guys, this is not the end. This is the beginning. Now is the time for us to stand up now more than ever. Now is the time for you. We, we… Sometimes we, we go, “Oh, w- we’re waiting for the cavalry to come and rescue us.” You are the cavalry. It is you. We’re waiting for you. Women my age are not out there having abortions. It’s women your age, it’s your peers, it’s people that you know. We need you out there in front of those abortion clinics. We need you out here volunteering at these pregnancy resource centers. We need you on social media talking about life. We need you out here. I can’t end abortion on my own. I will not end abortion on my own. It’s gonna take all of you to help us do it.
God says that we are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. Be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. Don’t be scared. Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry about who likes you. Who cares? Who cares? At the end of your life, you are not gonna be.. Look around. At the end of your life, you’re not gonna be face to face with any of these people. At the end of your life, you’re gonna be face to face with the one true God. And He is not gonna ask you how many friends you had on Instagram, but I believe He will ask you what you did for the least of these. By God, you better have an answer.
Audience: (Applause)
Abby: Do something. Do it now. Be unafraid. Thank you all so much and God bless you.
Audience: Whoo. (Applause)
John: And with that rather strong call to action, we come to the end of a presentation from Dr. Abby Johnson, given at Liberty University in the fall of 2022.
Jim: Wow, John, what a powerful message from Abby. And it was actually one of our most popular shows of last year. And I’m so grateful for her ability to motivate her audiences to be more outspoken about the sanctity of every human life. And if you want to get involved in the pro-life movement, which I hope you do, let me encourage you to make a difference through Focus on the Family by donating to our Option Ultrasound Program. Over 20 years, we have helped save over 500,000 babies from abortion. That’s half a million babies. And we’ve done that by allowing those mothers to actually see the child in their womb using ultrasound. And we have found that over 50% of abortion-minded women will choose life once they see their baby on that screen. A donation of $60 can help us save one baby today. And when you donate, we have a special book bundle for you. Uh, you’ll receive Abby Johnson’s autobiography called Unplanned. It has a lot more details of her story than what we were able to share today. And we’ll pair that with Abby’s new children’s book called What’s in Mommy’s Tummy? And it helps prepare children for a new sibling in a humorous way while underscoring the humanity of the pre-born child. And let me also add, if Abby’s story brought up some issues for you, please give us a call. Our caring staff would be honored to hear your story and pray for you. And if needed, uh, we can have one of our caring Christian counselors give you a call back. It’s all a free service that we’ve provided for over 40 years with the help of our donors. So please let us know if we can help.
John: Yeah, our counseling team is here to serve and it’d be a privilege for us to help you. Our number is 800, the letter A and the word FAMILY. 800-232-6459. Uh, just request a call back from one of those counselors. If you’re able to, when you have us on the phone, make a generous donation to the ministry today and request the book bundle by Abby Johnson, uh, the title we’ve talked about today, Unplanned and then a children’s book she’s written called What’s in Mommy’s Tummy? You can also find those online and donate at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I’m John Fuller, inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.
