Opinion

A way out for abortion clinic workers

Abby Johnson Former Planned Parenthood Clinic Director
Font Size:

Most of us have experienced that Sunday evening paralysis, dreading Monday morning because we aren’t happy in our jobs. Maybe we want to leave but just haven’t had the time to look into other places of employment, or maybe we just need the money. But what if it is a job that causes your conscience to constantly nag, Am I doing the right thing?

I didn’t completely dislike my job as an abortion clinic director when I left. However, I certainly had reservations about the work we were doing. Those reservations grew stronger after I was called in to assist with an abortion.

The people who work in abortion clinics are usually there because they want to help women, they need the money, or they just can’t gather the courage to start looking for a new job. I’ve been there. I tried to justify my work at Planned Parenthood as helping women in crisis pregnancies, as giving them a new lease on life after their choice to terminate the life of their child, and as promoting “choice” as a great thing.

But after I saw what actually happened during an abortion, I just couldn’t do it anymore.

Then it was me in crisis. Where would I turn? I had a daughter to support and needed to contribute to our household. My spirit was drained from accepting the deception of the abortion industry and I needed financial, emotional, legal, and even spiritual support. Luckily I was able to find it and my life has been filled with grace ever since — and joy.

But I wanted to do more. I wanted to help men and women who were in similar situations, who were stuck in jobs that were harming their souls. I wanted to let them know that there is help on the other side, that they can get out of the clinics and start anew. This was my mission.

I founded And Then There Were None (ATTWN), which provides support to those in the abortion industry who, like I did, want out — for whatever reason. As someone who has worked in the industry, I know what it is like to feel trapped: by financial concerns, by the justifications I had given myself and others for years, by fear. I don’t want fear or lack of money to be the reason someone stays in the abortion industry, because no reason and no amount of money can make what goes on inside an abortion clinic right.

I know what it is like to be trapped, but I also know now what it is to be free. And so do the 47 others we have helped transition out of this industry and into a better life.

I hear all the time from former abortion clinic workers that they started at the front desk or as a scheduler or receptionist, and then began counseling, which in turn led to being in the room with the doctor and, eventually, helping out during an abortion. Some of these workers were even responsible for counting baby parts in the lab to make sure nothing was left inside the women. This work not only destroys the child and harms the women on many levels but it darkens and kills the soul of the worker.

This April 8, I encourage all workers who are ready to leave the industry to join us for “Exodus 2013: Leave Your Job in the Abortion Industry Day.” It is my hope that one day there will be no one working in abortion clinics. We can help.

My message is simple: It’s okay to quit your job in the abortion industry, we are here for you. Healing and transformation is possible. No matter what series of decisions got you into the abortion industry, there is something so much better for you outside of it. I hope that my message will reach hearts open to change and a better life.

Abby Johnson is the founder of And Then There Were None.