Pro-life vid of the day: 40 Days for Life kicks off today!
by LauraLoo
Shawn Carney, Campaign Director of 40 Days for Life, continues his passionate pursuit of eliminating the scourge of abortion in our nation….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7U0tpl9UbM[/youtube]
And in the sovereignty of God, Shawn was able to converse over a stretch of time with Abby Johnson. Shawn was able to meet both Abbys in fact: first, the “mean Abby” while she worked at the abortion clinic and finally the “sweet Abby” after her pro-life conversion.
Abby recounts her moving testimony on September 7th at an event celebrating the most historic abortion center closure in the 40 years since Roe v. Wade. Abby is refreshingly honesty, emotional and humorous about herself and her shortcomings. Some examples include how she would have never (ever) been friends with the Carneys, how she used to disdain anyone supporting the pro-life movement, and also how she justified her own abortion before going on to have more children.
Abby implores every one of us to remain committed to the cause – and rejoices over the fact that in just the four past weeks (at the time the video was shot), SEVEN Planned Parenthood clinics have closed in Texas. It is her desire to see an abortion-free Texas and believes it can be done.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZXfqWzMvN8[/youtube]
Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
There’s a “sweet Abby”? I think not. Pro-life or not, she is full of such acidic vitriol. I pretty much discount anything she says anymore.
Joining the chorus of prayer for God to end abortion!!!
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Sydney maybe others know what you are referring to in your comments but I don’t and I am sorry to read your comments. We have many who are enemies of the prolife movement who want to see discord and so that is why I am bringing this up and I am not trying to be snarky or mean in saying this at all. I think I would consider Mrs. Johnson a novice Christian and prolifer who like all of us has made some mistakes but if you have some insight relevant to her actually hurting and being a hindrance or reproach to the prolife movement I would say maybe trying to get in contact with her regarding it would be in a good start ”to see if you can restore a brother/sister” in the faith, if she rebuffs you then maybe some expression of disapproval would be in order on a public prolife blog . My point is I think we as Christians (I am fairly sure I have heard you express you are a Christian) in the pro-life movement should not “kill our wounded” Lord knows I have made plenty of mistakes in my life and may be have done some of the same things Abby did without knowing I was hurting my cause or others. I am just asking you to please pray and see if it is possible to have a positive resolution and outcome to whatever you are referring to concerning her (I will pray also). Feel free to pray for me Lord knows I sure need it. We are in a spiritual battle of phenomenal proportions right now. I hope I have not made you angry with my comments that is not what I intended. I have to go now, have a long day ahead working with my PCC on a project. God bless you Sydney.
Prolifer L, I and many others have “gotten in contact” with Abby. I’ve had conversations with her on the lies she spreads about good, pro-life organizations such as saying Life Dynamics wants to kill abortionists. HUH? Can you imagine the ammo she gives the pro-aborts by publicly stating such nonsense?
I have no allegiance to Abby. I don’t care if she is a novice pro-lifer. The fact is that many in the pro-life movement have made her out to be some sort of general and that we should all listen in awe to everything Abby Johnson says. I say she is a dangerous person because her words are inconsistent and based on many conversations I and others have had with her there are many of us who are not entirely convinced she is truly 100% pro-life.
We should not be so desperate for allies that we give a platform to every person who comes along and says “Oh yeah…I’m pro-life now too” when their other words and actions don’t add up.
Sydney,
I’ve talked to Abby personally. She was very nice to me, very civil, very kind. She can be very direct in what she says, but I don’t see in her any desire to hatred, but a desire to defend life. I’m sorry your experience of her has been negative. Perhaps you can turn that negative experience into prayer?
God bless! :-)
And the 40 Days for Life will still be going on in 2063.
Mother in Texas, I have no doubt that Abby can be sweet to those she wants to be. She was very sweet to me as well at first. But when I disagreed with her she became hateful and abusive. She attacked pro-lifer Abigail Seidman in emails that I have seen threatening to have her blacklisted from the pro-life speaking circuit because Abigail dares to tell the truth that abortion is demonic child sacrifice and many in the abortion industry are pagans and practice wicca and other witchcraft and goddess worship. Abigail saw it firsthand. Her story has been featured on lifenews etc…
I appreciate direct people. I am a pretty direct person myself. Abby goes beyond direct. And I can forgive someone for being snarky occasionally…this goes beyond that. She has publicly attacked Mark Crutcher and other pro-lifers saying they want to kill abortionists. If I was Mark I would sue the pants off of Abby for such lies.
We have pro-aborts saying we pro-lifers are crazy, violent killers and then you have “converts” such as Abby standing up and saying we want to kill abortionists? What damage she is doing! And yet so many flock to Abby and take her words for gospel truth. I think she is a liar. There. I said it. I do not find her genuine at all. Her words don’t add up. Her testimony doesn’t add up. Either you think babies are humans with rights or you don’t. She is all over the place in her statements. And she wants to prevent us from showing the truth of abortion even though we know that CBR’s genocide awareness projects WORK to convert hearts and minds.
I feel like from all my interactions with her and all I’ve heard/seen/read from her that she is a pro-abortion plant and is meant to persuade us to stop using tactics that work and undermine the work we do. I wish more pro-lifers would wake up and consider that you will know a tree by it’s fruit. I never saw such fruit from Bernard Nathanson or Carol Everett or Jewels Green.
I am very wary of Abby because again, I think she is a very dangerous person to be following yet so many pro-lifers want to be her disciples. I am just advocating discernment here. Just because you were about to be fired from your job and came to a pro-life CPC for help doesn’t mean you should be given a microphone and lectern and a platform to indoctrinate the masses.
Are we so desperate for conversion stories that we don’t always try to find truth anymore? Other abortion workers have left yet we don’t prop them up as poster children. Maybe Abby was thrust into the spotlight too soon…or maybe my hunch is correct and she isn’t genuinely pro-life. Time will tell.
Sydney, I certainly appreciate your posts on this thread.
I recently borrowed Abby’s book to a friend and I want to be able to fill her in on any controversy surrounding Abby.
Publicly attacking, threatening to blacklist and lying about fellow prolifers is not acceptable.
Thank you for bringing this to light.
And the 40 Days for Life will still be going on in 2063.
So you think there will still be pro-lifers 50 years from now, and that you won’t manage to convince everyone that reproductive justice is a basic human right as fundamental as the right to vote? Tough break…
No, what I am saying is abortion will be lawful for the next 50 years at least. Some people thought Roe v. Wade was going to be overturned in 1989 and 1992, but that never happened, did it?
It took nearly 60 years to reverse Plessy v. Ferguson. Given that pretty much all legal scholars disagree with Roe, its days are numbered.
The New York Times also declared that the issue was “resolved” in January 1973. That didn’t happen either, did it?
Just because Abby gets a lot of coverage on pro-life websites doesn’t necessarily mean people are flocking “to Abby and take her words for gospel truth.” I have always seen her as a woman who didn’t approach being pro-life from a place of self-professed innocence but rather from the somewhat defensive position of having been deep in the abortion business. Even if some of us don’t find a person “pro-life enough” it seems that she may be able to help other abortion employees get out of the business. And they may feel more comfortable with her than they would with someone like me, for example, who can’t relate to killing babies for a living. I’ve read Abby’s writing at one time where she admonished pro-lifers not to use words like “abortuary.” Well, she has a right to her opinion. And I have a right to use the word “abortuary” anyway.
The exiles waited 70 years to return to Jerusalem. Pro-lifers have patience for the long run. Pro-choicers like Merit can’t even wait a few months to not be pregnant anymore.
Given that pretty much all legal scholars disagree with Roe, its days are numbered. – ‘pretty much’? You have some data?
If Roe is to ever be overturned it won’t happen until better laws for womens reproductive rights are in place anyway.
Abby does seem to be doing rather well for herself.
Hard data isn’t easy to find, Reality, but numerous prominent legal scholars that favour legalized abortion have excoriated it. No pro-choice law professor would dare to do that if the decision were defensible.
http://prolifemn.blogspot.ca/2011/06/abortion-defenders-explain-why-roe-v.html
The best the five justice majority could do in 1993 was pretty much concede they might have been wrong in 1973, but that overturning it would make them look bad.
SCOTUS upholding several new kinds of limits on abortion (in Casey and Gonzales) seemed to come much sooner than these “better laws for women’s reproductive rights” (meaning something like FOCA, I presume)…
Well, Navi, say Roe v. Wade is overturned. Overturning Roe doesn’t mean that abortion will be criminalized in the entire country. You’d still have at least 1/3 of the states that would allow abortion.
And, you’d still probably have at least 750,000 to a million abortions in those 16 to 17 states where abortion was still legal (total of 600,000 abortions in those states based on current figures plus another 150,000 to 400,000 abortions performed for women from states where abortions were illegal who traveled to the 16 or 17 states).
I’m aware of that, Merit. I have never claimed that overturning Roe v. Wade alone would mean the end of abortion. But the fact that we can’t (immediately) save all of the lives is no reason to not save the ones we can (while working towards ending abortion in the other 17 states).
Sydney I am very sorry to hear this and if you have discussed this on the blog before I must have missed it. I appreciate that you went to Mrs. Johnson and tried to resolve these issues and that is all you can do. I am sorry to hear that she has accused prolifers of wanting “to kill” abortionists which is a very serious charge and libelous. I hope and pray that there is someone that she would listen to regarding this. My sincere apologies as I stated my comments were not meant to be mean or snarky. I will indeed pray about this situation, and all the people involved.
I thought I must have missed something, too, Prolifer L., so I went back and found a 2011 thread and see where I made a comment so I was aware of some of these issues. I think as I age I am getting better and better at letting bygones by bygones (but only with Christ’s help) which explains to myself at least why I didn’t remember the controversies until re-reading the old thread.
To me, the Abby in the video seems a bit humbler than the Abby in the 2011 thread. She is a work in progress like the rest of us. Some of her behaviors (threats to blacklist and extreme dishonesty) were, I’m sure, so ingrained and enabled in her PP role that we should probably expect it to take some time for her to totally untangle herself from these bad habits (sins).
That being said, I have little doubt that Abby checks out the posts that are written about her and it was important for Sydney to point out (and remind some of us of) the hurt Abby has caused. It is my hope that Abby might apologize for the hurt and harm that she has caused to some in the prolife movement.
Being thrust in the limelight so suddenly after leaving PP was probably both a blessing and a curse. But God is with us through it all and will use it all for His glory.
I’m adding my prayers for all involved. Unity is strength.