For the month of August I read the book unPLANNED written by Abby Johnson. Because of the recent House bill proposing an investigation of Planned Parenthood's funds, it felt like a fitting book. In the her book, Johnson described why she decided to become involved with Planned Parenthood, and why she decided to leave.
I think many young women could sympathize with her reason to join Planned Parenthood. In college, Johnson went to her school's job fair and saw a booth by Planned Parenthood. With the booth's happy and feminine pink colors it drew her attention. At the booth was a Planned Parenthood representative who would later become a mentor for Johnson. The representative explained to Johnson that Planned Parenthood's mission wasn't to provide women with abortions, but to reduce the numbers of abortions by reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies. To many young women, this seems like a good mission. So, Johnson, who needed a career path decided she would plant her feet with Planned Parenthood.
She started as a volunteer and later became one of the organizations directors. Although she had worked for the organization for many years, she had never been present at an actual abortion procedure at her clinic. Her job was to council women before the procedure and help them raise funding. She was excellent at her job, and kept the mission in mind by reducing the number of abortions her clinic provided. She even was acknowledged for her excellence by her colleagues and was asked by radio stations to discuss her job.
Things started to change for her when she realized how much the organization was spending. The organization realized how profitable abortions procedures were so the mission then became to increase the number of abortions rather than reduce them. In her state of Texas, her area built an expensive new facility in Houston, TX and decided that they would start aborting later term fetuses. These measures and others were an effort by Planned Parenthood to increase their profits.
Although Johnson was able to reduce costs at her clinic, more so than the ones in her area, it still wasn't enough to match the organizations spending. She was then reprimanded for not performing enough abortions at her clinic. Already fed up by the organization's change of heart, one day completely led to her change of heart.
She was asked by an abortionist to assist with an ultra-sound guided abortion. While the procedure went on she held the probe so that the abortionist could see what he was doing. This wasn't a normal method of abortion for Planned Parenthood. It was that day, that Johnson first experienced what happens during an abortion. She saw the fetus move around inside the uterus and fight for its life. Although she had had two of her own abortions prior to that incident, she never had seen what went on in the uterus with her own eyes.
That moment changed her life and is what led Abby to decide to leave Planned Parenthood. The organization had lied to her. It no longer cared about giving compassionate health care to women. Planned Parenthood was instead more focused on making money and increasing salaries. Planned Parenthood had also had lied to her when they said that fetuses were just a ball of cells with no feeling.
My favorite line in her unPLANNED is, "Never trust a decision you don't want your mother to know about." Isn't this true. We as people are all given a sense of intuition. Today so many of us reason our way out of ignoring what our intuition tells us. In reality all of our guilt and sadness could be prevented when we just listen.
In all, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with an open mind. Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life this is a great read. Abby Johnson has been on both sides of the fence literally advocating for and against abortion. I think it's probably her greatest strength as she follows along on her new mission.
So what did you think? If you read the book please answer the questions below:
- Have you ever had a change of heart on abortion? If so, why?
- What do you think of the quote, "Never trust a decision you don't want your mother to know about?"
- What was your favorite moment in unPLANNED? Were there any moments that made you cry or laugh?
- Looking forward, what was your takeaway from her book?
Lastly, thank you for reading!
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