Letter From Bryan
The Convert
Former Bryan Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson’s abrupt change from pro-choice activist to pro-life spokesperson turned her into a talk show sensation. But is her story true?
20 comments
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011, 5:04 pm
Roger Smith says:
I’ve been a born-again Christian since age 5 (pushing 55 here now), have been an ardent student of the Bible since age 18 (read it cover to cover 8 times, studied the whole thing in segments and in half a dozen English translations several more times, along with studying it in four other languages including Greek and Hebrew; went to a wonderful conservative graduate theology school, have been involved in teaching and ministries at many levels --- none of that to brag, all of it only to give a little profile of where I’m coming from spiritually).
I also moved from having been closely involved with prolife groups in the mid-’80s, to quickly becoming unsettled at their very obvious promotion of misinformation, and the hypocrisy of not WANTING to learn any more accurate information if it didn’t agree with the things they already believed. That is not Christianity: God is the God of truth, not of "whatever we believe at the moment". Truth may line up with what we believe; it may challenge things we believe, even things we cherish. But truth is the only place you’ll find God, not in mis- (or dis-) information.
Misinformation 1: "Human life begins at conception". Several other prolife points are usually linked with that, such as the often-heard idea that "brain waves" (the bioelectric signals in the brain’s cortex that are associated with personality and consciousness) have been detected as early as 40 days into pregnancy. However, that just isn’t medical fact; those brain signals have never been detected earlier than about 20 weeks (see this informative article, and especially its internal links to the original medical research: eileen.250x.com/Main/Einstein/Brain_Waves.htm). So since we associate brain activity with the presence of what we Christians would call mind, soul, or spirit, obviously that cannot emerge till around five months along. In addition, if fully human life (in the biblical sense) begins at conception, that makes no sense in the case of identical twins (or other multiples), since as we all learned in high school science, identicals all begin from a single fertilized egg, which later splits into two (or more) embryos. You’d have to suppose that God also somehow split the mind/soul/spirit as well, to make two or more individuals --- but obviously you never hear a word on that from prolife groups, not to mention there isn’t a hint of support for that notion in the Bible, let alone science.
Misinformation 2: "The Bible is against abortion". The Bible doesn’t say a single thing about abortion --- even though abortion was utterly common in the ancient world (search "herbal abortion" or "herbal abortifacient" for a lot of information on that). If God had thought it was a problem, pretty obviously he would have said something about it. However, since in the Bible God matter-of-factly takes responsibility for all that happens as a result of physical (including biological) processes, those who assert unilaterally that "abortion is wrong" must deal with the fact that God himself performs abortions: we call those sad events "miscarriages". (In fact, as any reasonably educated woman in this society will of course know, around 80% of a woman’s fertilized eggs don’t implant in the womb, but are flushed out naturally; so prolife Christians would have to acknowledge that God almost casually flushes away countless millions of incipient lives worldwide, every month; yet you never hear prolife groups address these points.) As a matter of fact, those prolife Christians who studied their Bibles would be aware of Numbers chapter 5, in which (as part of the very law which God gave Moses) a woman suspected of cheating on her husband is to be brought to a priest, who then performs a ceremony calling on God to cause her to miscarry if she’s pregnant with some other man’s child. That is, the God of the Bible, himself, gave direction that he was to be called on to quite literally perform an abortion, with the expectation that he would do just that. So obviously "God is against abortion", "the Bible is against abortion", or simply "abortion is wrong" cannot be maintained by Christians as blanket, unilateral beliefs or positions.
So when does human life begin? It might also be worth noting that many cultures in earlier times considered life in the womb to begin only when the woman first felt "quickening", that is, movement in her womb; by no means did they (nor the church) take such an extreme position as prolife Christians do today. Given the actual medical facts about "brain waves" --- what we Christians would read as indicating the presence of soul, mind, or spirit --- it would be hard to make a case for fully human life emerging any earlier than around 20 weeks, as mentioned above.
More importantly, it might be emphasized that human life simply doesn’t have any discernible "moment" of beginning: even the "moment" of conception isn’t, of course, a single moment (the moment when a sperm cell first begins to penetrate the egg’s outer membrane? or when it is fully taken inside? or when its genetic material first begins to disperse inside the egg? or when its genetic material, and that of the egg, are fully combined?). With what we’ve been able to see and learn through medical science, Christians in particular ought to be more humbled and amazed at the ever-deeper mystery of when life begins --- which appears indeed to be an "emergence", and not a "moment" we could point to or capture in a photo. That indeed is much more the tendency of God in Scripture: though he makes his reality known, he never lets himself, nor his work, quite be pinned down (which, of course, would give us the misperception of control). We managed to "pin him down" once, on a cross, but aside from that he won’t be pinned down. We should rather humble ourselves before the amazement of life, rather than think we can define it so precisely as to wage cultural wars over it.
Finally, I also notice that something like three-fourths of all that’s said or written on abortion is by men --- and it is a fact that not a one of us men will ever have to face, firsthand, the challenges of any pregnancy (whether planned or unplanned). Our breathtaking arrogance, in thinking we can dictate ultimate truth on something we will never have to face personally, is deeply disgraceful; we men should rather give place to women on that issue. (I’ve tried to limit the things I’ve said here to medical and scriptural facts, with a few unavoidable implications raised by those; other than that, I won’t presume to say what any woman should or shouldn’t do or think --- far less when I can never be in the shoes of any woman facing the family, financial, social, medical, or other issues that quite often complicate the matter from being a simple "choice". In fact, those who try to oversimplify this complex, agonizing matter to a "choice" do dishonor to all the lives involved.)
An authentically "prolife" position ought to take into consideration all of life’s complexity; in fact life is far too important ever to take a kneejerk, reflexive stance on whether something is simply "wrong" or "right". One thing that Christians ought to agree on, though, is that one of the few simple, straightforward statements in Scripture that does indeed encompass all of life is what Jesus said: "In everything, treat others as you would like to be treated." Prolife groups certainly do not do that; if in fact they are Christians, I would hope and pray that they would actually do what Christ said, and take all lives into consideration, not just one.
And yeah, I know this is really long (not to mention, more than a year after the article was first published; I found this linked from a current article, here www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/29/susan-b-anthony-list-planned-parenthood_n_841978.html ), so edit away. ;)
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010, 11:35 am
Jim B says:
I was going to leave this alone, but I couldn’t help but posting just one last time. People who are "against" abortion are not against a woman’s rights. We are simply against murder. Everyone on this earth is created equal. Both men and women.Responsibility? You want responsibility? Responsibility is caring for each other AND those that are unable to take care of & defend themselves,i.e., the elderly and those not born yet and those born with severe handicaps. The worldview (secular view) is that of the animal world... the weak and those unable to take care of themselves must die, only the strong survive. This is also the attitude that breeds the idea, "I’ve made mine in life, you can go hump yourself"
If the whole world (not just here in America) would get rid of that attitude, and started saying, "Here brother, let me give you a hand", then there would be no more need for conflict.
Saturday, February 13th, 2010, 11:42 pm
tonya says:
Abortion is serious business
and when you "change sides" its like going from the crips to the bloods
dangerous stuff
So like anyone else who has to defend their job of ending a life you can come up with and have to come up with in order to have a guilt free conscience, all sorts of deep sounding "reasoning"
But then you go to the side that says hey , politics aside, you are ending a life, no argument
we dont have to argue whether a 1 day old fetus can live on its own
If that is the litmus test, pro abortion folks lose
70 year old people who need assistance to live, kidney machines etc are still living
So forget that argument about the 1 day old
I AM FOR a women to choose her fate
But if women are so strong about that deep a decision and a decision that is solely theirs via the law and public acceptance, then how come when they decide to have the child they are NOT solely responsible for THAT decision?!!
"Responsible" being the operative word
Kind of crush’s the whole we are women we are strong our bodies our shoice we dont need a man etc
IN fact you need nothing but men it appears
you need the man BY YOUR CHOICE ( NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT RAPE INCLUDING THE FLASE CLAIMS OF RAPE) TO love you ( maybe he will maybe he wont) to impregnant you, to take care of you to take care of the child to pay taxes so the tax payer can support you etc etc etc
And forget your false cries of misogynistic rants towards my philosophy crushing statement here
Yes abortion is about choice, but a womens choice and decision and RESPONSIBILITY ( I know you hate that word but what can I do) and YOU HAVE FAILED..MISERABLY AT IT
And now a women changes "gangs" and you feel betrayed and hurt and want to make her pay
I’ll bet you think she now has a penis
Saturday, February 13th, 2010, 5:31 pm
Virginia says:
{Comments may be edited for length and clarity.}
????
Okaaayyy.....
So why was my comment edited? It wasn’t nearly as long as the one right before mine, plus you left out my points that made it more clear. I wish we truly had freedom of speech in this country. Let’s see how long this one stays up!
The truth will always come out in the end!
Saturday, February 13th, 2010, 8:52 am
Virginia says:
This article is treating Abby Johnson’s change of heart in a rather superficial manner. In her recent interviews, I saw a very guarded young woman, readily admitting that she is now pro-life, but reticent to admit the full horror of the stance she used to take and the atrocious procedures in which she used to participate. I believe Abby Johnson and her story. I also believe that others who disagree with her pro-life status will do anything they can to discredit her.
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010, 2:09 pm
Jim B says:
Abortion is murder. Shooting someone with a M-16 can be considered murder, if you hate war. But the deep down truth to the whole matter is the fact that PP covers up the truth about the mental anguish women go through in their later years about getting an abortion. It is the same mental anguish that we have a name for when it happens in soldiers: PTSD. You cannot take the life of another human being, be they in the womb or outside of it, and not feel anything. It will get to you at some point in your life. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but rest assured, IT WILL get to you eventually. Even cops who train all their careers, taking classes on how to defend themselves, have thrown up the first time they had to put a man or woman down. It’s just human. Now, as far as all the comments I have read about abortion is a necessity because of over breeding by the poor class: No, it ain’t. We need workers, because there are a lot of "high class jerk" citizens who don’t want to do anything, so, you have to fill those spots with other people. Then you have to pay those people, and you aren’t going to pay an exuberant amount of money to do some smuck’s clothes, or wash his/her car, so...you have to have people. This whole comments thing is filled with comments by those who think they know best about "being cool to murder a baby"...Well, I got news for you ...my 2year old, (who is alive and well, because she has two wonderful, loving parents) is smarter than any of you "grown- ups" any day of the week. Oh, and one last biting comment....As I sit back and study people, which I do every day, I see that those who are yelling the loudest in support of abortion: You wouldn’t be here making things miserable for everyone else if your parents had practiced what you preach!!!
Monday, February 1st, 2010, 11:17 am
says:
For those who have not done so already, you should go to the website liveaction.org to read about the real Planned Parenthood to expose the cover-up of what PP really does. Lila Rose, who runs this site, is a well known pro-life advocate. As the president and founder of Live Action, she’s done a lot of really amazing work exposing Planned Parenthood for what they really are: an evil organization looking to profit off of the slaughter of the unborn by any means necessary. They’ll manipulate women into getting abortions. They’ll lie about the science. And time after time, they’ve been proven to look the other way when cases of alleged statutory rape are presented to them. All of this has been exposed to be light thanks to the hard work of Lila Rose. Whether you are for or against abortion is really irrelevant — every parent in America should be against Planned Parenthood for the crimes they commit and the lack of ethics possessed by this organization.
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010, 12:16 pm
Jack says:
Thanks for proving my point, Joe. Your —or your secondary sources’— selective and context-free editing of quotes from Margaret Sanger demonstrates the intellectual dishonesty that permeates the opposition to Planned Parenthood. Let me give the complete quotes, with context and links for the readers.
For starters: "All of our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class, and if morality is to mean anything at all to us, we must regard all the changes which tend toward the uplift and survival of the human race as moral" ["Morality and Birth Control," Feb-Mar 1918; http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=213391.xml].
If one reads the entire article, one learns the problems Sanger refers to are poverty, limited economic opportunities, prostitution. illegitimacy, and abortion. Rather than declaring war on the working class —as Joe implies— she declares it a moral imperative that “knowledge of birth control, so carefully guarded and so secretly practiced by the women of the wealthy class†be made available to working class women.
Partial quotes were given from "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda," Oct 1921 [http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=238946.xml]. The complete quotes follow:
“Today Eugenics is suggested by the most diverse minds as the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems. The most intransigent and daring teachers and scientists have lent their support to this great biological interpretation of the human race....
“In the limited space of the present paper, I have time only to touch upon some of the fundamental convictions that form the basis of our Birth Control propaganda, and which, as I think you must agree, indicate that the campaign for Birth Control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical in ideal, with the final aims of Eugenics.â€
In this article, Sanger discusses the promotion of the idea of birth control. Because eugenics had gained much scientific, governmental, and popular approval —more on this below— the birth control movement would benefit to cross-promote with the eugenics movement.
Finally, “...To give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization†[“A Plan for Peace,†Apr 1932; http://www.scribd.com/doc/24617997/1932-Margaret-Sanger-A-Plan-for-Peace] . This seems damning today, but for 1932 America it was fairly mainstream. Prominent scientists and citizens supported eugenics, e.g., Alexander Graham Bell and Woodrow Wilson. By the 1920s several state governments had already enacted compulsory sterilization laws. The federal Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 restricted immigration by the “mentally or physically defective,†Asians, and Southern and Eastern Europeans. Incest laws and anti-miscegenation laws were adopted in many states using eugenic justification.
Eugenics lost its allure in the U.S. following World War II, when the Nazi Holocaust became widely known, and with the growth of the Civil Rights Movement. To Sanger’s credit, she opposed Hitler as early as 1933 [http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/secure/newsletter/articles/sanger-hitler_equation.html], and her last mention of eugenics was 1938, referring to a conference held in 1932. The Supreme Court only declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional in 1967, and sterilization of the mentally ill and mentally retarded persisted in the U.S. into the 1970s.
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, 6:15 pm
Slade Foster says:
Sounds like it might be time for a Coalition-of-Life-a-thon.
http://www.phelps-a-thon.com/About.html
This fantastic idea was created to combat the hatred of the Westboro Baptist Church morons.
In essence, people pledge money for every minute/hour that the Coalition of Life folks are protesting in front of Planned Parenthood. Works best when someone is actively updating a poster with the amount being collected so that the protesters can see the fruits of their ’labor’.
Monday, January 11th, 2010, 5:59 pm
joe says:
"...must have been wearing to an organization [Planned Parenthood] already subject daily to mind-boggling vitriol and harrassment."
Can’t let anything get in the way of sticking scissors in the heads of those babies and tossing them out with the trash!
BTW, that quote from Sanger may not be vierified, but THESE ARE:
"All of our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class, and if morality is to mean anything at all to us, we must regard all the changes which tend toward the uplift and survival of the human race as moral."
Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.
"The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda", October 1921, page 5.
The campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics.
"The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda", October 1921, page 5.
...give dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.[1]
"A Plan for Peace", April 1932, pp. 107-108
Monday, January 11th, 2010, 5:52 pm
rudy says:
Let’s remember that this is a form of the media. The media is always skewed. Nate’s story is clearly skewed towards Planned Parenthood. Notice that Planned Parenthood doesn’t ever defend abortion...because they can’t. They may try to discredit Abby’s story because that is the only thing they can do. They can’t actually go in the media and saw that abortion is great because they know deep down it is not. This woman saw the truth. That is awesome. I am not surprised that Texas Monthly has put this spin on her story. Abby has never even heard of the "form" the Planned Parenthood submitted as "evidence" that her story is not true. Well, that is pretty telling. She ran the clinic for two years. I am pretty sure if that for was legitimate, she would know what form they were talking about. This story is ridiculous.
Sunday, January 10th, 2010, 3:09 pm
Jack says:
Concerning the quote below allegedly from Margaret Sanger [January 9th, 2010 at 4:21pm]:
I have not been able to find a reliable attribution of that statement anywhere. Several citations even sourced the statement to Sanger’s book _The Pivot of Civilization_. The statement is not found in _The Pivot of Civilization_.
The Margaret Sanger Project at New York University has been working since 1985 to locate, research, and publish the papers of Sanger, including a searchable online edition of _The Speeches and Articles of Margaret Sanger (1911-1959)_. If Sanger had made such a statement, I am certain it would have turned up by now with adequate documentation, documentation that is uniformly absent from the hundreds of times that quote is cited on the internet.
Maybe the author of the anonymous comment from January 9th, 2010 at 4:21pm was not intentionally furthering a lie. Maybe they are only guilty of sloppy scholarship. But by repeating that lie they have contributed to deceiving the public about Sanger and Planned Parenthood.
Sunday, January 10th, 2010, 7:13 am
b howard says:
Ah yes, war, overpopulation, political turmoil, genocide, all thanks to religiosity. Buy hey, now that she has "seen the light" it’s just one more "god-fearing christian" telling the world her way is the "right" way and everyone else is wrong. Where would this world be without religion? It couldn’t possibly be worse and please no inferences that without religion there is no morality. Most of the atheists I know have more moral character than Ms. Johnson.
Saturday, January 9th, 2010, 4:21 pm
says:
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America. 78% of their clinics are in minority communities. Blacks make up 12% of the population, but 35% of the abortions in America. The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a devout racist who created the Negro Project designed to sterilize unknowing black women and others she deemed as undesirables of society? The founder of Planned Parenthood said, "Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated." And now Planned Parenthood wants to demonize, censor and shut down the First Amendment freedom of expression of anyone who dares stand up to them.
Saturday, January 9th, 2010, 11:30 am
Rajesh says:
I am a volunteer at the Planned Parenthood clinic and knew Abby Johnson as a staunch and vocal supporter of women’s reproductive rights, right up to the day she left Planned Parenthood. Now I see her with the other "coalition for life" folk screaming at and harassing Planned parenthood patients, the very thing she so disliked previously. So which is the real Abby Johnson? This so called "conversion" seems stage-managed and I hope, for her sake, something that she really believes in.
Saturday, January 9th, 2010, 8:08 am
Ellen O. Stanford says:
I find it much easier to believe Abby than an organization that profits from 300,000 abortions every single year and receives 300 Million dollars in taxpayer dollars every year. From the beginning, it was Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s pro eugenic founder, who used deception to convince the black community to embrace abortion. The lies are on the side of PP. I have also found that the people who yell the loudest to defend abortion are trying to justify their own actions in the complicity of an abortion. Their consciences can’t stand to admit what they really did, murder a human being.
Thursday, January 7th, 2010, 11:28 am
Holly says:
I guess she told THEM... those mean old bosses who didn’t appreciate all of her hard work and long hours. Darn those meanies!
Nothing undoes hard work and dedication -- if one could believe she, in fact, did work hard and was dedicated when she worked there -- like pulling a total crazy like this after the fact.
I’m with Randi, I’m googling the PP site and donating -- in Abby’s honor, if they’ll let me.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010, 2:36 pm
Randi says:
Clearly [Abby Johnson] has some rather serious problems. I find the contrast between how pious the Coalition for Life people portray themselves to be and the tactics they use against Planned Parenthood to be disturbing. 40 day-long, 24 hours a day protests, letters claiming to know what judgment God will impose. It makes me want to write a check to Planned Parenthood just for putting up with this nonsense.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010, 9:51 am
Kelly says:
I agree whole heartedly with Polly - thanks, Nate, for writing this piece. I am so sick of how Planned Parenthood is constantly maligned by the right. Okay, so you don’t like abortion - fine - but PP provides MANY other services that are sorely needed to underserved populations of women. It’s where many women go for affordable contraceptives and basic gyn care (particularly younger women or women without insurance). Anyhow, that’s another subject, but this Abby chick sounds like a total faker to me. Shame on her.
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010, 10:11 pm
Polly says:
I’m glad journalism is still alive. To see a disgruntled, dishonest (or perhaps, to be more charitable than [Abby] Johnson herself, self-deluded) employee lionized by everyone from Fox News to The View without a moment of responsible investigation must have been wearing to an organization [Planned Parenthood] already subject daily to mind-boggling vitriol and harrassment.
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