Planned Parenthood has found itself in a legal battle with a former director who said she had a change of heart after watching an ultrasound for an abortion and quit the organization.
KBTX of Bryan/College Station, Texas, reports that Abby Johnson worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years, and two years as director, but joined forces with the Coalition For Life earlier this month, praying with volunteers outside the clinic.
Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian churchgoer recently became convicted about. “I feel so pure in heart [since leaving]. I don’t have this guilt, I don’t have this burden on me anymore that’s how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion.”
Planned Parenthood filed a temporary restraining order October 30 to prevent Johnson from disclosing information about the organization.
Johnson told Fox News that she became disillusioned after she felt pressure to increase profits by performing more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
“Every meeting that we had was, ‘We don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough money—we’ve got to keep these abortions coming,’ ” Johnson said. “It’s a very lucrative business and that’s why they want to increase numbers.”
Johnson had told KBTX that the organization put its moneys mostly toward abortions. “It seemed like maybe that’s not what a lot of people were believing any more because that’s not where the money was. The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,” she said.
The parties are expected to go to court November 10.
Religion editor Frank Lockwood reports that Maryana Iskander, a top Planned Parenthood executive, will speak in Little Rock on November 9.
The surprisingly blunt title of her speech: “How to Get Rich with Public Service.” It’s debatable whether running a chain of abortion clinics qualifies as “public service.” But it’s clearly a good way to get rich—or at least well-to-do. As Planned Parenthood’s chief operating officer, Iskander makes about $270,000 per year, according to IRS 990 forms.
And in the neighboring state of Oklahoma, a state-wide legal battle continues, according to Associated Press. Pro-life groups have hailed ultrasound technology as a way to convince women not to abort.
Another district court judge overturned the other law, which would require women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound and to have a doctor talk them through what they’re seeing. The law would require a doctor to use a vaginal transducer in the earliest stages of pregnancy, since that provides the clearest image when the fetus is small. The method is more invasive than the abdominal ultrasounds most pregnant women undergo.
The state has appealed the decision to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
A separate judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of a law that would require women seeking abortions to disclose information, such as previous pregnancies, previous marriages, previous induced abortions, how the abortion was paid for, and the reason for the abortion, which would be put on a state-run website. A hearing is set for December 4.
