A Change Of Heart Is Not A Conspiracy

Speculation is abounding on the net that the ex-Director of Planned Parenthood was a plant by the anti-choice lobby and working to infiltrate Planned Parenthood in order to bring them down.

As conspiracy theories go, it’s a little weak.

Abby Johnson resigned with a statement that she is now anti-choice after working at Planned Parenthood for more than eight years.

She had a moment, “just like a flash that hit me” where she decided she could no longer support abortion after seeing an ultrasound. She said that she was encouraged to “bring in more women who wanted abortions” and “now supports the Coalition For Life”.

I agree that this sounds suspicious. If she had been Director for eight years that means she would have potentially been working in health care for a number of years before that. She would have seen ultrasounds before and been aware of how the abortion procedures work. And suggesting that she was encouraged to bring more abortions to the clinic is very much an argument that anti-choicers would use to criminalise Planned Parenthood as “pro-abortion”, which they are not.

However, I also don’t think the anti-choice lobby should be given more credit than they are due. Yes they can be zealots, and yes they can be loud and aggressive and invasive. But are they really capable of this?

Granted, she was allegedly found to be stealing confidential files from the clinic and giving names of abortion doctors to Coalition for Life, but until the court case is resolved we won’t know whether this is true or not. Even is she was, this doesn’t mean she was planted.

Perhaps she began to have doubts years ago and slowly became more involved with them. Perhaps she had a traumatic abortion herself as many of the anti-choicers have. Maybe she got tired of being targeted by the anti-choicers and resigned for the safety of her family after “death threats ‘targeted at me and my husband and my daughter’ and being followed in her car”. Or maybe she really did have a religious conversion. If she was part of the anti-choice movement from the beginning it is doubtful that she could justify supporting abortion for so many years before coming out against it.

Whatever the case may be, she has left Planned Parenthood to join the anti-choicers and it is difficult to see how this event will have any lasting negative effects for Planned Parenthood.

This event and her departure should be celebrated; the last person who should be working in an abortion clinic is someone who is anti-choice.