Indiana Bans Abortion After 20 Weeks – Abortion Gang
All Those “Alternatives” to Planned Parenthood Don’t Exist – RH Reality Check
Abortion Providers Put Themselves at Risk Every Day – RH Reality Check
Abby Johnson is Outing Abortion Providers on Her Website – Katie Stack
Oh, and if you’re scratching your head thinking, “Abby who?” here’s the background scoop on her shenanigans.
Remember when we told you about the Planned Parenthood clinic director in Texas who quit her job to join the 40 Days for Life wingnuts? Well, Abby Johnson is back in the news – this time because her story of experiencing a radical change of heart just isn’t holding up to scrutiny. According to Texas Monthly, portions of Abby Johnson’s story may have been fabricated to cover up the real reason for her departure from Planned Parenthood – slipping job performance.
The rollout of Abby Johnson as a culture-war celebrity got off to a rocky start. In early November, the online magazine Salon reported that on September 27, the day after Johnson says she witnessed the ultrasound-guided abortion and had her epiphany, she appeared as a guest on the Bryan public radio program Fair and Feminist to discuss her work at the clinic. In the hour-long interview, Johnson gives an enthusiastic defense of the clinic and ridicules the 40 Days for Life protest. She doesn’t sound like someone who’d had a life-changing experience the previous day or who had soured on her employer’s mission . . .
Johnson’s departure from Planned Parenthood turned out to be a more complex story than it first appeared. At a court hearing for an injunction sought by Planned Parenthood to prevent Johnson from divulging confidential information to her new allies, two of Johnson’s former co-workers testified that she told them in the days before she resigned that she was afraid she was about to be fired. At one time, Johnson, who was named the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate’s employee of the year in 2008, seemed to have a promising future with the organization. By mid-2009, however, her relationship with her employer had begun to deteriorate. Salon reported that on October 2, Johnson was summoned to Houston to meet with her supervisors to discuss problems with her job performance. She was placed on what Planned Parenthood calls a “performance improvement plan.” It was just three days later, on Monday, that Johnson made her tearful appearance at the Coalition for Life. The following day she faxed Planned Parenthood a resignation letter, which mentioned nothing about a crisis of conscience . . . [Read more...]
A Few Words on Maine and the Dying Hog of Homophobia – Pam’s House Blend
Why Do Pot Dispensaries Win and Gay Marriages Lose on the Same Ballot in Maine? – Pam’s House Blend
GOP Victories Offer a Warning for Democrats – NPR
Worried – The Abortioneers
Barriers to Abortion Rise – Boston Globe
Questions About Stopping the Side Effects of Birth Control – Our Bodies, Ourselves
More Coverage of Abby Johnson’s Conversion – Jezebel
Clinic Buffer Zone Struck Down – The Jurist
I’m a little conflicted about a story that I read on Faux News, and in Reuters. The story is about a woman named Abby Johnson, who recently quit her job as a Planned Parenthood clinic director in Bryan, Texas. According to the story on Fox:
‘When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice,” Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, “I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart … a spiritual conversion.”
Faux News goes onto say that Johnson was becoming disheartened by the big cash cow of the “abortion industry.” It’s all a part of a media blitz coordinated by 40 Days for Life, the anti-choice zealots who have been harassing clinic workers and patients for the past month and a half. Here’s what Reuters has to say, based on a press release from the wingnuts. [Read more...]
